


Deepest desire

by Tirainy



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Eventual Romance, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn, Sonadow - Freeform, Wordcount: Over 50.000
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-27 06:56:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 58,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7608223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tirainy/pseuds/Tirainy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dr. Eggman invented a serum that will make the injected person act upon their deepest desire. He believed that Shadow's was to kill Sonic. Boy, how wrong he was...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Haze

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to chaogardens for helping me with this chapter.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

"Shadow, I'm sure we can talk this out," Sonic said, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender while at the same time backing away from the dark hedgehog, greatly hoping that Shadow wouldn't try to tear him to shreds like Eggman had predicted Shadow would before throwing them into this tiny room.

However, it seemed as if Shadow didn't even understand him anymore as the dark hedgehog made no sign of acknowledging his words, continuing his approach on him with a strange look on his face.

Sonic felt his back hit the wall, his eyes immediately locking onto his drug-affected rival, watching the other's every move intently. He had no way of getting away from Shadow as the room was simply too small—Shadow could very easily catch him if he wanted to.

There were a mere four feet of distance between them now—and Shadow was slowly cutting this distance even shorter.

Soon, not even the small amount of space remained—two hands were placed at either side of his head, effectively trapping him between the wall and the ebony agent, who was now _growling_. Sonic's ears instinctively flattened against his head at the clear display of hostility, anxiously awaiting Shadow's next move. He didn't want to hurt his friend, but if Shadow attacked...he wouldn't hesitate to fight back.

To Sonic's surprise, the ebony agent made no move to attack him. No. Instead, Shadow just kept looking at him, almost as if he were studying him. Even the aggressive growling had changed to a soft rumble in the dark chest.

Sonic blinked in confusion, his ears perking up again as he looked into his rival's eyes, noticing that they were no longer showing any signs of malice. They were filled with something completely different now—but Sonic couldn't recognize what it was as he had never seen the emotion before.

Shadow's eyes narrowed slightly at the shared eye-contact, though his body language stayed the same otherwise.

"...Shadow?" Sonic called out softly, keeping his voice low as he didn't wish to startle or anger the dark hedgehog in any way.

Sonic was expecting Shadow to respond with something along the lines of 'What?' or just a simple 'Hmm?', which seemed more realistic given his current state, but instead the dark hedgehog did something that Sonic wouldn't have expected him to do even in his wildest dreams.

He kissed him.

However, it wasn't that perfect movie kiss that you could see in a romantic movie, no—this was rough and animalistic.

Sonic made an incomprehensible startled noise at the back of his throat and immediately attempted to pull away from the dark hedgehog—which, however, proved to be impossible with him trapped against the wall like this. Thus he resolved to using his hands that had previously been pressed against his chest to push against Shadow's own chest in an attempt to shove the agent away.

But Shadow refused to move his body despite Sonic's attempts, his low growl of protest making this very clear to the cobalt hero. Instead, the agent's hands left the wall, Shadow briefly pulling away from the kiss to seize hold of his peach wrists and force them above his head, before reconnecting their lips with even more vigor.

Letting out a whimper at the rough treatment, Sonic began to thrash under the other's hold, struggling to twist his wrists free from the iron hold pressing them firmly against the wall. Shadow let out a low growl of irritation at this, the hold at Sonic's wrists tightening even more in warning.

Despite this, the cobalt speedster just continued with his thrashing, not caring if his wrists were going to be horribly bruised the next day because of it. Sonic even gave a few more attempts to twist his head away from the kiss, but seeing as this protest was to no avail, he had to settle for yelling into the lip-lock instead.

"Ghado, stahp—!"

This proved to be a bad move as Shadow immediately used this opportunity to get his tongue past the peach lips. A startled yelp lodged itself in Sonic's throat, the hero having no idea how to react to this uninvited guest in his mouth. However, once Sonic got over his initial shock, he immediately started to fight the intrusion, using his own tongue to try to push the foreign muscle out of his mouth.

But Shadow seemed to have no intention of letting his oral cavity alone, pushing back with even more vigor than him and using the slipperiness of their mixed saliva to his advantage.

A shiver ran up Sonic's spine as he suddenly felt a hand being placed on his hip, not quite sure when Shadow had managed to shift the grip on his wrists to have just one hand holding both of his arms immobile so the agent could run the other up and down his side, the dark hand leaving a strange prickling sensation where it touched him.

Sonic let out a quiet whine, not liking the fact that he was undoubtedly losing the battle and afraid of what would happen if he let it continue.

And so he bit down.

**Hard.**

As expected, Shadow immediately lurched backwards, a cry of pain mixed with surprise leaving his throat. Seeing it as his chance, Sonic immediately took advantage of this moment of distraction to try to twist free of the other's hold, all the while trying to ignore the taste of Shadow's blood in his mouth as well—he hadn't meant to bite that hard.

However, before he could fully get his hands free, Shadow had managed to pull himself together and tighten the grasp on his wrists again. Sonic gulped audibly when he felt this, wondering if his death would at least be fast.

But then Shadow raised his gaze, the sight striking Sonic speechless as the emotion that he saw in the agent's eyes wasn't rage like he had expected.

The emotion was hurt. And the blue hero just couldn't understand why such an emotion would be in his rival's eyes.

However, Sonic didn't even have the time to think what could've caused it, as a moment later the ebony agent looked away and let go of his wrists completely. Baffled by this occurrence, the hero hesitantly drew his hands back to his sides, unsure of what to think of this gesture when the ebony hedgehog had seemed so adamant about keeping him immobilized just moments before.

But even this train of thought was abandoned soon as the ebony hedgehog's hands shot forward without any warning once again. The first one grabbed his hip, while the other somehow managed to find its way through the half-bristled quills on his back, both pulling him closer to their owner who immediately buried his face into the junction of his shoulder and neck.

Feeling the other's hot breath washing over his neck, Sonic stiffened up immediately, his brain quickly trying to figure out whether fighting or staying calm should be his next move.

Allowing his hands to go free would be an unreasonable decision on Shadow's part if the agent intended to harm him—this way he would be able to defend himself from any possible attacks—so Shadow clearly didn't plan to hurt him...

However, this conclusion was forgotten even faster than it was made—as in the very next moment, Shadow's teeth grazed against Sonic's sensitive throat and the hero's system immediately become flooded with panic at the thought that the dark hedgehog might have just given him a false feeling of safety to get a chance at tearing his throat open. Faster than even his name suggested, Sonic brought his hands up and pressed them against the dark shoulders in a desperate attempt to pull away.

"No, no, no— _please_!"

However, instead of teeth sinking into his flesh like he had expected, Sonic felt only a gentle nibble on his shoulder, which was not long after followed by a soft _kiss_ to the same spot, the action making his breath hitch. But it wasn't a lone occurrence; his neck was soon showered with soft kisses and nibbles, which didn't feel _exactly_ unpleasant...

More like the opposite...

Sonic actually found himself suppressing a moan of pleasure—which was also exactly the moment his brain ultimately shut down as it just wasn't able to deal with all of the contradicting signals that its owner's body and mind were sending it.

_Pull yourself together, Sonic! This guy is freaking_ _ **harassing**_ _you!_ his inner voice of reason commanded him, knowing that he needed to draw himself out of his daze before it was too late.

In spite of himself, the hero's arms still embraced the dark hedgehog instead of pushing him away.

_He's just placating you now—!_

Despite its best efforts, the dazed hedgehog still barely registered the voice—or how Shadow's hand slid down over his hip bone and then settled on the outer side of his right thigh.

However, when said leg was pulled upward, the action didn't come unnoticed by Sonic—despite the fact that the ebony agent continued to caress his neck ceaselessly in order to distract him.

And it didn't take a genius to figure out in what _kind_ of direction Shadow was inconspicuously trying to steer their situation.

The cobalt hero took a deep breath to bring some clarity back into his dazed mind, the voice falling silent when it felt him gaining control again. Taking another deep breath, Sonic opened his mouth to speak, hoping his voice would come out strong even though his body didn't feel that way at all at the moment.

"Shadow, stop..."

The dark hedgehog let a strange noise that resembled both a growl and a whine at the same time, clearly not liking the idea of following his demand.

"Shadow, please! This is not the time for this!" Sonic tried, hoping his words would somehow reach whatever remained of the dark agent's rational side—Eggman's serum couldn't possibly have shut it down completely, right? "Eggman could come back to check on us at any moment now! And once he sees that you haven't killed me yet, he'll try to do it himself!"

Sonic wasn't entirely sure if he should take the fact that Shadow had started to growl when hearing this as a good sign or not.

But just then, Shadow finally raised his gaze upwards, his crimson eyes filled with rage that definitely wasn't aimed at him—but on the idea of Dr. Eggman hurting him. The hero let out a deep exhale, relieved that his impromptu plan seemed to be working so far.

Green eyes turned to stare into crimson ones that, alongside rage, were still displaying the strange emotion that he couldn't place. "...We'll continue this after we get out of here. What do you say about that?" he asked, hoping the other would take the bait.

The dark hedgehog tilted his head to the side slightly, a tiny hint of distrust visible in his eyes. "...Promise?"

A little spark of hope ignited in the hero's heart at hearing Shadow speak up—the serum might already be leaving the other's system. Believing that the ebony hedgehog would already be back to his usual grumpy and antisocial self once they were out of here, the hero didn't hesitate to nod.

"Yes, I promise."

This confirmation was all it took for Shadow to begin to attempt to get them out of their little cell.

And to this day, Sonic still wonders how Shadow had managed to spin-dash through a two-foot thick steel door.

O-o-O-o-O

Green eyes surveyed the outside world through the gaps of the shutter of the exhaust vent they had picked as their escape route, checking that among the thick green vegetation of the forest no robots were hiding.

When Sonic figured they truly weren't, he gestured at his ebony companion over his shoulder. "All right, the coast is clear! Let's get moving!" Using his strong legs, Sonic kicked the shutter, the heavy metallic cover falling onto the grass-covered ground with a loud thud.

The cobalt hero jumped out of the vent, from the corner of his eye seeing Shadow do the same just a moment later. Wanting to avoid being possibly spotted by any guard robots that might decide to investigate the source of the noise, Sonic immediately headed into the dense forest, certain that Shadow would follow even without him having to say anything.

Once he reached a small clearing, Sonic skidded to stop, glancing over his shoulder into the forest as he waited for Shadow to catch up with him so they could leave the area together; it was safer to stick together with all the robots surveying the area for possible intruders like them. Plus he wanted to keep an eye on Shadow as he still wasn't one-hundred percent sure if the ebony hedgehog was or wasn't still under the influence of the serum.

It was true that the dark agent had behaved himself during their small trip through the ventilation system—which Sonic believed Shadow's drug-affected self-control wouldn't manage to do—but the agent also hadn't said a word. Shadow had never been a talker like him, but being this quiet was strange even for him.

As the rattling sound of branches being pushed out of the way alerted Sonic of Shadow's arrival, the cobalt speedster immediately shifted his stance, readying himself to break into a run once again. And once the green eyes caught a glimpse of the obsidian fur, Sonic made the first step—only to suddenly find himself lying, with his back flat on the grass and with a certain dark hedgehog atop of him.

Sonic blinked in confusion as he looked up at the other hedgehog, who strangely wasn't displaying any signs of aggression despite having knocked him down so harshly. The dark agent was just watching him with an unreadable expression on his face, that strange emotion—which Sonic still couldn't name no matter how hard he tried—shining in the crimson eyes.

But the agent didn't give him the time to wonder what it could be as, without a warning, Shadow suddenly leaned down and pressed his lips to the side of Sonic's neck while one of the gloved dark hands started to caress the hero's side, causing breath to become stuck in Sonic's throat as well finally make the cobalt speedster realize that the other one was planning to continue what he'd started in the cell.

Unfortunately for Shadow, a few kisses to a neck wasn't enough to make Sonic stop being concerned about the dozens of murderous robots running around, the hero immediately showing this by pushing against the black and white-furred chest with one of his hands while he used the other hand to prop himself up.

"Shads, this isn't the time for this! We're still—"

The rest of Sonic's protest was muffled when tan lips suddenly pressed to his own, the other hedgehog clearly not caring that they were still in the enemy territory and thus could get ambushed at any moment.

Sonic sharply turned his head away, effectively breaking the kiss. "Shadow, stop! We really need to leave!"

Shadow gave a grunt of disgruntlement at this remark, the agent clearly not finding it as something he wanted to do, further confirming this by lowering his head again to nibble at Sonic's neck—to which the hero immediately responded by resuming his pushing. "Shadow, come o—Ohhh!"

Mortification shot through Sonic's veins, red flooding the hero's face at the embarrassing sound he just let slip out. _Again._ Pressing his lips tightly together to not let out anything similar by accident, Sonic took a deep breath through his nose to calm himself, before focusing back as well as giving a stern look to his ebony rival, who continued to ki-er-abuse his neck.

"Shadow, stop it!" he ordered in what he hoped was a commanding tone. However, when the next thing that happened was his neck getting such a thorough lick that it send a shiver up his spine, Sonic guessed that it hadn't sounded as authoritative as he had meant it to be.

So he tried again. "I'm serious!"

The ebony agent looked up from his neck, those crimson eyes clearly saying that Shadow wasn't going to budge no matter how much he insisted they needed to move.

No. Instead the dark agent lowered his head again and resumed with using those skillful tan lips on his neck, slowly making him lose his resolve while at the same time making his body feel more and more like a jelly by massaging his tense muscles in such a _wonderful_ way that he didn't even notice when he was softly pushed onto the ground again.

Chaos, how could it feel so good...?

"Shadow...stop..." Sonic managed to get out despite the fact that his thoughts had been turned into a jumbled mess of nonsense by the dark hedgehog's ministrations, the hero, in the corner of his now-hazy mind, still realizing they were in a highly dangerous location.

However, even this little corner of the hero's mind was forgotten when Shadow moved his mouth from Sonic's neck back to his lips, capturing them in a gentle kiss that made Sonic's mind fully drift away from the world and into the blissful daze induced by the dark hedgehog.

However, this didn't last long—as in the next moment Sonic could feel a knee pressing against his crotch, this area of his body so unused to being touched that it immediately made him snap out of his daze with a surprised _squeak_.

Which wasn't exactly a manly reaction, but he guessed the fact that nobody had ever breached his personal bubble in such way before justified reacting this way.

—that, however, still didn't mean he hadn't felt completely embarrassed about it when he _heard_ that there was somebody else beside them.

"Oh, my, I didn't know you two were into public sex."

And it was at that same moment that Sonic recalled that upon their arrival to the Egghead's base Shadow had told him that _a certain bat_ should have been somewhere in the building as well.

"R-Rouge?" Sonic blurted out in surprise once Shadow raised his head to look at the newcomer, the cobalt hero's cheeks turning scarlet as his brain finally processed what actually Rouge had said and in what kind of _compromising_ position they were, while Shadow's face just kept its original color, the dark agent obviously too busy with glaring at the bat for interrupting them to feel embarrassed.

With a small smirk playing on her lips, the female agent gave the duo a raised eye-ridge from her position high in the crown of a nearby tree. "So this is why you two weren't responding to my calls? And for a moment I thought you might be in trouble."

The hero wanted to retort that they had been in trouble (and he still kind of _was_ ), but this thought was forgotten the moment that he realized he had no idea what 'calls' was Rouge speaking about.

And just then, from the corner of his eyes, he noticed that a small part of the GUN communicator on Shadow's wrist was repeatedly flashing green and red, as if it were trying to get their attention, and only then Sonic recalled that he had seen Shadow turning the communicator off at one point during their stealth mission.

"Well, I guess I should take my leave then. You're obviously _occupied_ , somebody still needs to keep an eye on Doctor and I'm pretty sure that I'll burst in flames if Shadow continues to give me that death glare," Rouge joked as she spread her wings, bending her knees to spring herself into the air—and almost falling from the branch in surprise when Sonic shouted in panic at the same moment.

"Rouge, wait!"

Shadow immediately turned his glare from Rouge to Sonic, the dark gloved fingers harshly digging into Sonic's sides, the ebony agent clearly not appreciating his decision of telling the bat to stay. However, Sonic just ignored both actions and focused fully on Rouge as at the moment she was the only person that could stop him and Shadow from doing something they would both regret later—as he didn't think he would resist Shadow's charms if the dark agent tried to continue and Shadow definitely didn't look like he planned to do anything but that.

"Shadow's drugged," the cobalt hero cut to the chase, needing Rouge to understand the seriousness of the situation. "Eggman gave him some serum that is making him behave all—er— _clingy_ , " he explained, yelping when Shadow choose that exact same moment to wrap his arms around his blue and peach form and then roll them both over into a sitting position, the blue hero suddenly finding himself straddling the agent's lap with dark arms wrapped around him in a possessive hold, the ebony agent now glaring at the bat over his shoulder with even bigger intensity than before.

"Very clingy, indeed," Rouge commented with a small chuckle as she jumped down from the branch, slowing her descend by flapping her wings a few times; and once on the solid ground, she walked over to the hedgehog duo, her smirk stretching wide when she saw how her ebony co-worker tightened his hold even more. "Need a help with getting him off?"

"Definitely," Sonic replied as a faint blush started to form on his cheeks due to the proximity with the dark agent, the hero burying his flushed face into his rival's shoulder. "He doesn't want to listen to me," he added as an explanation once he heard the bat approach them, the firm grip that the other hedgehog had on his body not allowing him to turn around.

Rouge didn't give any sign of acknowledgement of his words, her attention obviously already on her colleague. "Alright, sunshine, even thought I'm happy to see that you've decided to change your mind about _befriending_ people," she said, a hint of amusement in her voice, "I think you're getting way too friendly with Sonic here. You should probably give him some space."

Shadow growled as he pressed Sonic even closer to his own body, leaving practically no space between them.

Sonic gulped, now able to feel a move of every muscle under Shadow's dark pelt due to the closeness—and this was definitely way _too close_ for his liking. "Er, Rouge—"

"I'm working on it!" the female agent snapped before he could even finish his complaint, the bat obviously not happy that her first attempt on persuasion hadn't worked. She watched the defiant hedgehog for a moment longer, trying to come up with a plan that would force Shadow to let go of Sonic on his own—as she herself definitely didn't have enough physical strength to pry the hero out of his grasp.

And just then her ears caught a sound of _something_ which made a victorious grin appear on her face as it was ideal for what she needed right now. With a quick "Be right back!" she took off and disappeared somewhere in the forest, Sonic immediately feeling his stomach drop in apprehension at hearing her leave.

And this feeling proved to be an appropriate one as Rouge returned only a few seconds later—because this time it was with three _giant_ robots chasing right after her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-01]


	2. Revelations

"Boy, I'm really curious what Doctor put into that serum that it made Shadow so determined to jump your bones," Rouge commented as she looked over to the aforementioned hedgehog, the ebony agent skating just a few paces behind Sonic and her; the hero was now carrying her as otherwise she wouldn't be able to keep up with the two hedgehogs—and also because Shadow would now think twice about trying to tackle Sonic to the ground as he had tried already twice since they had finished dealing with the robots and started their journey to Tails' house.

She wasn't exactly happy about her technical role as Sonic's living shield but given Sonic's _situation_ she was willing to put herself into this potentially dangerous position to help a friend.

(But mostly because watching Shadow sulk like a little kid whose favorite toy had been taken away was _really_ entertaining.)

"Though you didn't really look like you were against that proposition—if you catch my drift," Rouge winked at the blue hero, laughing when she saw how red Sonic's cheeks got at the implication of her words.

"I wasn't—"

However, Rouge didn't let the hero finish his defense, already continuing with letting her train of thought be known to the world, "But I guess that's no surprise given how amazing kisser Shadow is. Who wouldn't be tempted to see what else he could do after getting kissed by him?"

Cocking a confused brow, Sonic just gave her the side-look that said 'How do you know?' before looking up to keep an eye on the road again.

The female agent chuckled at the other's reaction and began to explain. "Each year GUN holds a party for all the employees. One year we got a little bit too drunk and I got Shadow to kiss me. I must say that even with all the alcohol in his system he still managed to kiss my socks off—Well, figuratively, of course," Rouge said, chuckling at her own joke.

"I see..." Sonic murmured, subtly taking a look at the ebony hedgehog who was still watching them closely. Rouge smirked as she saw this exact same action as an opportunity to continue entertaining herself with Sonic's reactions.

"Though that little drunken kiss definitely was _nothing_ in comparison to what he did to me once we got from the party. That guy is an absolute _beast_ in the bed."

However, she almost regretted making this little remark out as it made Sonic stumble and almost fall—which she believed could be considered an equivalent of the more usual situation with a drinking person suddenly choking on their drink.

And then, when Sonic managed to steady himself and look at her, it was clear from the incredulous look on his face that the hero wasn't sure if she was just messing with his head or not. And thus Rouge gave him a wink, enjoying the confused look at the speedster's face with a silent amusement.

Though this silent amusement changed into a loud laughter when Sonic's face turned scarlet a moment later—because he had turned around, probably hoping that Shadow would deny her story and confirm she was just messing with him; but instead of doing so Shadow had only given Sonic a suggestive eye-ridge wiggle, the ebony hedgehog clearly wanting to have a part of the fun as well.

Chaos, she really loved her job sometimes.

O-o-O-o-O

"He said something about it affecting the left hemisphere of...er...cerebral cortex? And also something about hippopotamus...?" Sonic said, racking his brain for the term that Dr. Eggman had used when describing the serum's effects.

"Don't you mean hypothalamus?" Tails asked once he finished filling the syringe in his grasp with Shadow's serum-contaminated blood, carefully pulling the needle out of the crook of the ebony agent's elbow; he didn't want to cause any extra damage to the surrounding tissues as he didn't wish to give Shadow more reasons to be angry with them. After all, the lone fact that Rouge and Sonic had teamed up on him to knock him out would surely be enough of reason for him to unleash hell on them once he woke up.

Though it definitely made things much easier when he didn't need to reason with the ebony hedgehog.

"Yeah, that's the word!" Sonic confirmed, nodding. "Mind translating the science-talk for us non-scientists?" he continued, referring to himself as well as Rouge, who was currently just quietly watching the exchange from beside the bed on which Shadow was lying.

"Both terms are names of specific parts of the brain. However, neuroscience isn't exactly my expertise so I don't really know what is their exact function. I'll have to look it up later," the young inventor replied, at the moment dividing the obtained blood into three test-tubes for later examination.

"Though I think it'll be much more useful to know what exactly the serum does instead of knowing what areas of Shadow's brain it influences. You haven't really told me how exactly the serum affects Shadow," Tails explained, subtly inquiring for information that neither of the older Mobians bothered to share in those ten minutes since they had came into his workshop with unconscious Shadow. He knew that Shadow was under influence of some serum, but otherwise he knew nothing about the ebony agent's condition.

"Well, he's a little bit more, ehm, _affectionate_ now..." Sonic started, his cheeks getting slightly redder as memories of past two hours flooded his mind.

"Affectionate?" Tails' eye-ridges flew up, the young inventor clearly having hard time believing that Shadow was even capable of being affectionate with somebody. And, wait a minute, was Sonic _blushing_? Golden eye-ridges furrowed in thought, the genius sensing that there was something hidden in his older friend's words. "What exactly do you mean by 'affectionate'?"

"Well, he...er..." the cobalt hero started, still trying to find the correct way to express himself. "He's just..."

"He wants to jump Sonic's bones," Rouge interjected, both male heroes immediately turning to her—Tails with a surprised expression, Sonic with an embarrassed one.

"Rouge!" the cobalt hero called, obviously not happy about her straight-forward approach.

But the female agent just shrugged her shoulders, an innocent smile on her face. "What? He wanted to know."

"Is it true?" Tails asked, an incredulous look on his face as he turned to look at Sonic, the cobalt hero laughing nervously, clearly uncomfortable about the sudden attention.

"Well, I don't really know what exactly is going on in Shadow's head as he's said only about two words since he got injected with the serum. But he's been—well, touching me and kissing me a lot and he also tried to persuade me into doing _other things_ ," Sonic said, with cheeks redder than Knuckles' fur. "So, yeah, Rouge is probably right about Shadow—Do you think you can fix him?" he added the last part in haste, clearly uncomfortable with talking about Shadow's sudden liking of his person and thus trying to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"Well..." Tails frowned and furrowed his eye-ridges in deep thought, thinking over his answer. "I suppose I can. But it'll take some time. With a serum this strong—as to alter his behavior like this—it'll surely take some time to come up with an antidote. And it'll surely take a few days to analyze his blood as well..."

Sonic nodded, relieved that Tails believed he could do it. However, just a moment later the cobalt hero realized a small important detail in the fox's statement.

"Wait a minute! A few _days_ to analyze his blood?! But why? Anytime you test my blood it takes you barely five minutes! Why a few days now?" Sonic asked, not happy about this particular fact. Tails was supposed to fix everything in a few hours like always! Not a few days!

How was he supposed to deal with an _amorous_ Shadow for a few days?!

Tails sighed, not really happy about the situation either. "Because I don't even know what's normal for Shadow! Remember that he's an artificially engineered life-form whose bigger portion of DNA is alien, not Mobian. I firstly need to figure out what his blood is even _supposed_ to look like before I can even try to identify and isolate the serum from his blood and make one that would counter its effects."

"Look like? What is that even supposed to mean?!" Sonic questioned, not having any idea what could be the issue here.

"I meant how his hematocytes are supposed to look like—you know, erythrocytes and leukocytes. What kind of antibodies his blood is supposed to contain. Such things," Tails explained, but the confused expression on Sonic's face clearly said that the hero had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently, molecular biology wasn't covered in the basic education that Sonic had received before he had been forced to drop out of school to fight against Dr. Eggman 24/7.

The young inventor sighed. "Maybe if I had a sample of Shadow's blood that was taken sometime before this, I could compare it with ours and speed up the process significantly..."

"Well, I could try to get Shadow's blood sample from GUN, but that'll probably take some time until I'll obtain it," Rouge offered. "You'll have to keep an eye on him until then, though."

"I don't think there's any need to worry about that. Judging by what you've told me today I doubt he'll even want to leave Sonic's vicinity in near future," Tails replied, reminding the cobalt hero once again about his undesirable situation.

Sonic cleared his throat, drawing attention of both Mobians back to himself with the action. "Cannot we keep him—I don't know—sedated or something? I don't really feel comfortable having him around in this state."

"Oh, really? You seemed getting pretty comfortable in _that_ forest—" Rouge stared, but before she could continue with something that Sonic was positive would completely ruin Tails' image of him—it was enough that it already happened to _himself_ —the cobalt hero was at her side, hurriedly pushing her towards the exit.

"Oh, boy, look at the time! You should head to GUN HQ right away! You don't want to come outside of opening hours, right?"

Rouge seemed like she wanted to argue that GUN HQ _didn't_ have opening hours but by the time she managed to get her vocal chords to works, she was already standing outside the workshop.

Letting out a quiet chuckle, she gave to the heroes' house one last look and then spread her wings and soared into the sky, heading straight for her destination—the GUN Headquarters.

Inside the workshop, Sonic was relieved to see that Rouge was truly leaving. After she had disappeared from the eye-shot completely, Sonic turned his eyes back to Tails. The fox was already studying a droplet of Shadow's blood with a microscope, his brows furrowed in deep concentration. The cobalt hero quietly walked over to his younger friend, along the way shooting a fleeting glance to the ebony hedgehog that was still soundlessly sleeping in a faraway corner.

"So, how does it look?"

Tails looked up from the microscope, sighing. "I'll definitely need that GUN sample."

Sonic frowned, his gut twisting uncomfortably. Those weren't the words he had hoped to hear.

Uneasy green eyes turned to stare at the still unconscious hedgehog, sky blue eyes following them just a moment later. "So what are we going to do about him until then?"

"I don't think sedating him is a good idea. We cannot know if sedatives wouldn't somehow react with the serum and possibly make the situation even worse," Tails commented at Sonic's previous idea. "Keeping him locked somewhere is not a choice either, no part of our house would be able to withstand a chaos blast if he tried to escape."

The cobalt hero huffed as he leaned against the work table, blue ears pressed against his head in discontent. "It seems we'll have to let him roam freely then..."

"Seems so. But you were able to handle him so far, right? You surely won't have trouble doing so for a few more days," Tails said with a reassuring smile, deeply believing that Sonic would able to handle the situation on his own. However, when he saw the expression on the hero's face, he decided to add, "But I'll give you taser just in case. It should be somewhere around here..."

The young genius immediately moved from the microscope to search the shelves littered with unfinished projects, hoping he had put the aforementioned device there.

And even though Sonic wasn't entirely sure if he would truly be able to resist Shadow's charms on his own, he placed a hand on Tails' shoulder and, with a small smile on his face, said, "No need for that, buddy! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog! I can handle anything!" as he did not wish his brother to worry about him.

And just at that moment a pained groan sounded from the other side of the room, announcing a certain dark hedgehog's awakening.

Sonic gulped as he watched the dark hedgehog slowly sit up, one of the striped gloved hands pressed at the spot where Rouge had delivered the blow that had knocked the agent out, confused crimson eyes immediately sweeping over the room to take in the unfamiliar surroundings.

And just a moment later the blood-red eyes met their emerald counterparts and Sonic knew this would be a _difficult_ few days.

O-o-O-o-O

"He'll turn us into toasters," Cubot argued as he watched his now-joyful creator spin around in circles in some kind of victory dance with a glass of champagne in his right hand, the rotund scientist prematurely celebrating his assumed triumph of finally bringing Sonic to his demise.

"He'll do it wherever we tell him or not," Orbot responded as he slowly made his way over to Dr. Eggman, making a robotic version of clearing one's throat to get the scientist's attention. "I'm sorry to interrupt your celebration, sir, but there appears to be a problem with the Cell 22..."

Frowning, Dr. Eggman stopped his dancing as he recalled this exact cell was the one that the annoying pest and Shadow were supposed to be inhabiting. "And what exactly is this problem, Orbot?"

The spherical robot resisted the urge to flinch under the intense gaze of his creator, for once glad that he was a robot and thus couldn't sweat. "It appears that the prisoners have escaped, sir."

" _Prisoners_ have escaped?" Dr. Eggman asked, his voice dropping dangerously low. "What do you mean by that prisoners have escaped? There is no way both of them could have escaped from that cell _alive_ ," he said, his tone alone saying that Orbot better correct himself—that only Shadow had escaped as in his opinion there was no way the drugged hedgehog would have let Sonic stay alive before making his escape from the cell.

Orbot cowered under the scorching glare of his creator, wondering if he even still had the chance to be turned into a toaster or if his fate was to be completely dismantled. "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, sir, but that is exactly what has happened. As it seems your hypothesis about Shadow's desire was wrong; he doesn't wish to kill Sonic."

"Nonsense!" Dr. Eggman roared, flailing his arms wildly and thus accidentally spilling his champagne all over the floor. However, it didn't seem he had noticed it. "Shadow despises Sonic! What else could he desire than finally get rid of that blue nuisance?!"

Cubot and Orbot exchanged a glance, both wondering if telling their boss what they had seen on the cameras was a good idea. But then Cubot shrugged his shoulders, wordlessly saying he's leaving the decision to his metallic companion. Orbot then turned back to his creator, clearing his non-existent throat once again.

"Sonic himself, sir."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-01]


	3. Uninvited Guests

"Umm...it was a Rouge's idea?" Sonic tried, instinctively leaning over the workbench behind him, not sure what to expect of Shadow that was now towering over him menacingly. The ebony agent might had more of 'I am mad at you' look on his face rather than 'I am going to murder you' look but because these looked sometimes _very_ similar Sonic did not dare to look away even for a split of second.

And from the corner of his eye, Sonic could see that Tails was doing the same—thought apart from him the young inventor had the taser right next to his hand, prepared to give aid in case Shadow decided to attack.

But just then, the second door of the workshop burst open and the attention of the three males was immediately drawn elsewhere.

"Sonikku! Here you are!" the person standing in the doorway announced, this short statement and one glimpse at the hammer-wielding female being enough for all to identify the newcomer.

As the hammer disappeared into the thin air, Amy smiled and skipped over to her beloved hero, who wasn't leaning over the workbench anymore as thanks to her rather loud entrance Shadow had made a step backwards in alarm and thus left him with enough space to stand upright again.

"I missed you!" the pink heroine exclaimed as she flung herself at Sonic to hug him, her hands immediately intertwining behind his neck. "Do you know how long I've been looking for you? I couldn't find you anywhere! But when I came here, I heard you talking so I tried to open the door—but it was locked! So I had to let myself in!"

_Well, that explains the dramatic entrance,_ Sonic thought as he looked at the heavily damaged door that used to connect Tails' workshop to the rest of the house. _Maybe we should tell her about the back-door..._ he mused and then turned his gaze back at the pink female, forcing a smile on his face before speaking up. "You know I'm always happy to see you too, Amy, but we have a kinda _difficult_ situation here at the moment so I'll have to ask you to leave."

"A difficult situation? What kind of—?" And as if to answer Amy's unfinished question, Shadow choose that exact moment to curl his arm around Sonic's waist, pulling the cobalt speedster backwards and against his body, while at the same time growling threateningly at the female.

The hedgehog female immediately made a step back at this clear sign of aggression, pulling her arms close to her sides instinctively. "What—?"

"Shads is not fully, well, _himself_ at the moment, as you can see," Sonic started to explain, deciding not to fight the possessive gesture for the time being as he didn't want to possibly provoke the agent into attacking. "Eggman injected him with some strange serum that has messed with his brain so Shadow's now, well, _clingy_ ," he continued, not really wishing to share with her the other aspects of the ebony agent's current behavior. "So, sorry. But I don't really have time now. I've got to keep an eye on Shadow until Tails finds a way how to fix him."

The pink female frowned. "...I'm sure Tails can watch him for you for a few hours," Amy said, determined to get some time alone with her dear hero. She reached for him again, but Shadow started to growl even louder and from the corner of his eye, the blue hero could catch that his rival was showing his teeth now as well, clearly telling Amy to keep her hands to herself if she didn't want to get hurt.

The pink female immediately recoiled back in fear, not used to the ebony agent showing such hostility towards her. However, the fear for her safety turned into a fear for her hero's when she realized Sonic was in the growling hedgehog's immediate vicinity. "A-Are you sure he won't hurt you?"

"Nah, I'll be fine," Sonic replied with a light-hearted tone, hoping it would soothe Amy's worries. He was sure Shadow had nothing of the sort in plan and was just trying to be intimidating to scare her from trying to get him away from the agent—just like he had tried with Rouge in the forest.

"There's really nothing to worry about. The same happened with Rouge before and, as you can see, I'm still in one piece!" he said with chuckle, at the same time inconspicuously placing his hand over Shadow's own and gently rubbing it with his thumb to make the still tense hedgehog relax. The agent might have stopped growling, but the dark arm was still wrapped around his form way too tightly.

"If you say so..." Amy murmured, still looking rather wary and a bit disappointed that she couldn't have the cobalt speedster just for herself. "...Can I help anyhow?"

Sonic shook his head, not wanting Amy to stay as the longer she spent here, the higher the chance of her witnessing _something_ was—because Shadow surely wouldn't start to behave himself just because of her being around and he definitely didn't want for war over his person to break out between her and Shadow. "I don't think it—"

"You could make a lunch," Tails interjected, Sonic immediately sending him the 'What on Mobius are you doing? I almost got her to leave,' look. But the younger Mobian just ignored it and continued on talking, "I have to work on the cure for Shadow—and the only things Sonic can cook are chili-dogs and pancakes, so your help would be very appreciated."

"Sure thing! Anything you would like me to prepare?" Amy asked, her green eyes sparkling with the joy that she could do something for her hero.

"I'm not picky. What about you, Sonic?" the young inventor asked, turning to his brother, who looked slightly offended by the comment, uttering quietly, "I can also make pasta, you know," which Tails took as a sign that Sonic didn't have any special requests either. "Well, it seems the decision is up to you, Amy. I'm sure that whatever you prepare will be delicious."

"I'll make sure it to be!" Amy beamed, clapping her hands together. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me!" she announced and turned to Sonic, obviously planning to invite him to go along with her. But one scorching glare from Shadow made her reconsider this decision and so she changed what she planned to say into, "Or if you want to offer a helping hand," and then hurriedly left the workshop, clearly very uneasy about being in the same room as the hostile hedgehog.

Once Sonic was sure that Amy was out of the earshot and the striped arm around his waist turned less rigid, he twisted out of the ebony agent's hold, the unexpectedness of the action working for him as Shadow didn't notice something was wrong until he was already standing a good few feet away from him. "Alright, pal, it seems we have to set a few rules here if you plan to stay here."

The ebony agent raised an eye-ridge at the sudden change of attitude, but otherwise didn't do anything else, obviously curious what kind of rules Sonic had in mind.

"Rule 1: No growling at my friends," Sonic started, raising his index finger to emphasize his point. "Rule 2: You're always keeping your hands to yourself when Amy is around. I don't want her to get the wrong idea," he continued as he raised his middle finger for emphasis too. "You break either of those rules and you're out of this house faster than you can say 'Chaos Control'. Got it?"

Shadow looked greatly displeased about this turn of events—or so it was until something flashed in his eyes and his lips stretched into a wide smirk; and with that same smirk still plastered on his face, the ebony agent nodded, his abrupt change of mood immediately setting off alarms in Sonic's mind.

Sonic's blue eye-ridge rose in suspicion, its owner letting his raised hand drop back to his side as he tried to figure out why Shadow was so alright with these rules now when he clearly hadn't found them to his liking just a moment ago.

"Good to know you two have settled that. Maybe you could go help Amy now?" Tails' voice suddenly sounded from the other side of the workshop, the young inventor now looking at something on his laptop with a look of intense focus on his face.

"That almost sounds like you want to get rid of us," Sonic responded jokingly, knowing that the young inventor hadn't meant the remark as something bad; he just wanted to have peace for work.

Tails turned to them, shrugging his shoulders. "I just thought you might prefer something else to do than stand here doing nothing. I'll call you in case I find anything," he said and turned back to the laptop screen.

"Well, I guess we could go help Amy," Sonic muttered, sparing a look to the ebony hedgehog who didn't seem exactly excited by the proposition. "Or at least _I_ am going. See you later, buddy."

Tails mumbled something which Sonic believed was supposed to be a goodbye as well, the young genius so engrossed in his work that he didn't even notice that his words hadn't come out as articulated as they should have. The cobalt speedster smiled fondly at this and made his way out of the workshop through the broken door, his ears turning around when they caught the soft clanking of Shadow's hover-skates against the floor behind him.

_Well, at least now I know what it's like to have a puppy that follows me everywhere,_ Sonic chuckled, shaking his head as he stepped into the corridor. He turned right, planning to go to the kitchen that was just around the corner.

That is, if he wasn't suddenly forced against the wall by Shadow. The agent's hands were now on the wall at each side of his head, effectively entrapping him between the wall and the ebony hedgehog like back in the cell. Crossing his arms over his chest, Sonic frowned at the agent, knowing well enough what was Shadow planning to do.

"Rule 2, Shad," he reminded the other, expecting that the little remark would be enough to dissuade Shadow from trying to be intimate  with him again.

But then Shadow replied, "Not hands," the remark leaving Sonic confused for long enough for Shadow to press his lips against the blue throat.

"H-hey! Stop!" Sonic half-hissed half-squeaked quietly, worried that Amy would hear them and go check what was happening. He didn't think the infatuated female would take calmly the sight of her love-interest 'getting familiar' with somebody else. "Rule 2!"

"Not hands," Shadow repeated, Sonic furrowing his eye-ridges in confusion. But then the hero realized what the other meant and immediately started to internally curse his previous word choice.

"You know very well what I meant, so stop quibbling!"

Sonic presumed that the nip his neck received a moment later was one of disagreement.

"Shad..." Sonic groaned softly in protest, fighting the urge to moan as he felt the side of his throat getting nipped, kissed, _sucked—_ all the different sensations making his head spin and making warmth pool in the bottom of his stomach.

The cobalt hero could feel Shadow's muzzle pressing against the underside of his lower jaw, the ebony agent trying to make him bare more of his neck. And because Sonic's mind was occupied with trying to figure out what the vaguely familiar warm feeling in his belly was, the hero didn't fight the attempt and let his head fall to the side, his eyes closing shut as the newly exposed flesh received the same treatment as the rest of his neck had previously.

With more warmth accumulating in the bottom of his stomach, the blue speedster let out a quiet moan, racking his mind to identify the sensation in his gut. He was sure he knew it, but what was it? It had been definitely a long time since he had last felt it and the last time it had been when he—

Green eyes shot open so fast Sonic was sure they broke the sound barrier on their own, peach gloved hands coming up just as fast to push the ebony hedgehog away.

Shadow, with a questioning look on his face, immediately looked up, surprised that he was being pushed away so suddenly—and rather forcefully. However, his questioning look changed into a curious one when he noticed the prominent blush decorating Sonic's cheeks, the cobalt hero now looking embarrassed about something.

Turning his eyes away from the other hedgehog's questioning gaze, the hero let out a nervous laugh. "Ehm, I-I think I need to use the bathroom. Be right back!" he declared and was gone in a flash, the sound of bathroom door clicking shut sounding just a moment later.

O-o-O-o-O

Dr. Eggman grimaced as he forced himself to continue looking at what the surveillance camera of the Cell 22 had recorded, trying to fight down the repugnance the sight brought forth in him. Now when he knew that Shadow didn't most desire to kill Sonic, he needed to figure out _what_ exactly the agent wanted from the blue hedgehog and then to find a way how to use this desire to harm Sonic.

If he should judge by the camera record only, he would guess that Shadow _lusted_ after Sonic. However, if this truly was the case Shadow would have forced himself on Sonic in the cell despite the hero's protests. He had given Shadow a big enough dose for the agent to be fully controlled by his urges so Shadow definitely couldn't have been weighted down by his morals—

"But, sir, your calculations on the dosing have been made with Mobians in mind, not hybrid lifeforms like Shadow. It is possible that the amount of serum that has been used on Shadow is simply inadequate to make him adopt fully animalistic behavior," Orbot interrupted his creator's not so internal monologue, the mad doctor slowly turning to look at him.

And despite being incapable of experiencing emotions, Orbot _felt_ he had just done something absolutely terrible when a wide mad smile stretched across the doctor's face just a moment later.

O-o-O-o-O

"What's wrong with me?!" Sonic hissed as he splashed his face with the cold water from the bathroom sink, the coolness of the water on his face such a big contrast to the fire he still felt in his insides. He splashed his face a few more times, taking deep breaths in between to make himself calm down, a wave of relief washing over him when it made the warmth in his abdomen slowly dissipate and then vanish completely.

As he slipped back on his gloves, the hero slowly sat down on the edge of the bathtub, hiding his face into his hands in a shame of what he had almost let happen. "Chaos, what's wrong with me...?"

Shadow was a friend—a friend that wasn't fully in control of himself at the moment. He was intoxicated by the serum. He had no idea what he was doing. He might not even truly like him.

Sonic knew it, he knew it well.

But, even so...He still had almost gotten a bo...bon...

The hero took a shuddering breath as he let his hands drop, his slightly flushed face becoming visible to the world again.

Why it had to be him out of all people in whom Shadow took interest...?

_I have to keep him at a distance,_ Sonic thought as he got up and walked over to the door. _I can't let this happen again..._

His slightly shaking hand curled around the door knob tightly, a frown appearing on the hero's face when he noticed his tremor. He took another deep breath to recompose himself, and, once sure he was calm enough, he turned the door knob and stepped out of the bathroom.

He warily looked around, expecting to see Shadow standing somewhere nearby. But surprisingly the dark hedgehog was nowhere to be seen.

"Shadow?" the hero asked in a loud voice, his ears swiveling around to catch any sound that would suggest the ebony agent's presence but still hearing nothing.

Or that was until Amy's cheerful voice called, "In the kitchen!" the few words immediately setting off warning bells inside Sonic's head. The blue hero hurriedly made his way into the kitchen to stop his rival from possibly doing something bad.

Thus you can probably imagine his surprise when he only saw the other male hedgehog calmly peeling potatoes, with no signs of impending violence happening.

Both Amy and Shadow immediately turned to him, Amy with a big smile on her face while Shadow had only a neutral expression. But the lack of emotion in Shadow's face was balanced by his highly curious eyes that were studying him, the hedgehog probably still wondering why he had so abruptly disappeared.

The pink female skipped over to the cobalt hero with a bowl of vegetables in her hands, her pink apron (that Sonic honestly had no idea where she had gotten) flowing elegantly around her body thanks to the motion. She handed him the bowl, smiling widely. "Could you cut these for me, please? I want to make a salad with—" Amy suddenly stopped talking and her eyes locked on his face—or so he had thought until her smile fell.

"...Is that a hickey?"

Sonic blinked in confusion, having no idea what she was talking about. But then he caught a glimpse of a Shadow smugly smirking at him and he immediately linked the two things together.

The cobalt hero gulped heavily as he looked back at the incredulous female at whose head was a clearly throbbing vein slowly forming in anger.

Chaos, why him?

"Is. That. A. _**Hickey**_?!" Amy repeated angrily, her voice rising with each word.

The sight of the enraged female immediately made Sonic's stomach drop and a wave of uneasiness wash over him. However, the hero didn't let it show and instead tried to appear nonchalant. "What? A hickey? Don't be absurd, Amy. It's just a bruise!" he tried to convince her, though judging by the fact she still had the same expression on her face she hadn't believed him.

"Where is she?" Amy demanded, her trusty Piko Piko hammer appearing in her grasp.

"Who?" Sonic asked in confusion, having no idea who 'she' is supposed to be.

"That girl that left the hickey on your neck! Where is she?! She's in the house, isn't she?!" she asked, knowing that in the few minutes she had seen Sonic couldn't have the time to go anywhere else.

"I'll teach her a lesson about lying her dirty lips on my Sonic!" Amy shouted as she stormed out of the room, determined to find the unknown female that dared to touch what she considered hers.

"What? No, Amy! There's no girl! I swear!" Sonic shouted as he hastily put away the vegetable-filled bowl. He ran after Amy to stop her from possibly wrecking his house in search of a girl that she had no chance of finding.

Because the so called 'girl' was actually a certain striped male who was apparently finding way too much amusement in the situation to go help him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-01]


	4. A Little Push

It took Sonic exactly ten minutes and three broken vases to calm Amy down—which might not sound as much, but it was definitely a more difficult feat than destroying the Dr. Eggman's robot of a week.

And now he was doing the even harder part—trying to convince her that the mark on his neck wasn't a hickey at all.

"Really, it's a bruise! Nothing more, Ames—"

"Then where did you get it?" she asked, still doubtful of it truly being just a bruise and not a hickey. It looked like one and she refused to let somebody that was not her put such horrible _marks_ on her hero.

"Shadow did it," the blue hero replied, deciding to give her at least a half-truth. "He accidentally hit me in the neck in self-defense when I sneaked up on him. I'm definitely not making that mistake again."

Shadow sent him an amused look at this remark, which Sonic answered with a subtle glare; he still planned to have a word with the ebony agent that such behavior was _not_ acceptable. If the press caught even a glimpse of the hickey, they would immediately start to investigate who had given it to him—and he definitely wouldn't appreciate having his house surrounded by a-gossip-writing journalists that would most likely come up with a story of him dating some actress or something.

"Oh..." Amy let out in surprise, which immediately changed into shame just a moment later, her cheeks confirming this by turning a dark shade of red. "I-I didn't know. I'm sorry for making such big deal out of it."

"You're forgiven," Sonic replied, choosing exactly those words to signify he didn't wish to speak about this anymore. Which he _truly_ didn't want to. "Everybody makes mistakes sometimes. So let's forget about it and get back to preparing lunch, alright? You said you want me to cut the vegetable, correct?" he asked already reaching for the bowl he had put away earlier, but which was snatched by Amy herself even before his hands could even touch it.

Amy gave him a big smile, already moving back to the kitchen counter. "Leave that to Shadow! I need something else from you!" she said as she set the bowl down on the counter and then took some kind of list off it, luckily, not noticing the annoyed glare she received from Shadow for throwing more work at him; Sonic really wasn't in the mood to play the role of peacemaker for the two.

"I need you to take me to the nearest shop so I can get these herbs." Amy showed Sonic the list, the hero quickly looking over the words written on the paper. "You don't have them here and I can't prepare the lunch without them."

"Well, maybe you could take a look at the back garden first," Sonic suggested, pointing at the said area through the kitchen window. "Tails grows a lot of plants there so it's possible he has those herbs as well—and fresh are always better, right?"

"I guess I could," she murmured, tapping her chin thoughtfully as she pondered the idea in her head for a second. A moment later a short, "Be right back!" left her as she turned around and left the kitchen to search the garden for the required herbs.

And Sonic was once again left alone with Shadow.

And somehow he found himself pressed against the kitchen counter by the ebony hedgehog just a moment later.

(Was it just him or was Shadow seriously picking up a bad habit of pressing him against stuff? Because so far it was twice a wall, a forest ground, a workbench and now even a kitchen counter...)

But even thought this was already the fifth time in the last three hours that he had gotten cornered by Shadow like this, this was only the second time he felt truly uneasy about it.

However, apart from the first time where he had been worried of what would Shadow do, this time he was anxious about what he _himself_ could possibly do if he let Shadow do whatever he pleased.

After all, the _almost_ incident from a half an hour ago proved pretty clearly his self-control wasn't as great as it should be. If he lets Shadow get 'close' again, he might not be able to resist him this time. Which he has to, because otherwise they could end up doing something that would irreversibly ruin the fragile friendship they had now.

And so Sonic raised his hands and firmly pushed against the other's strong chest, forcing the other hedgehog away before the agent could even try something. This, of course, made Shadow look at him questioningly, crimson eyes immediately filling with mild confusion and curiosity.

It didn't take genius to figure out that Shadow was wondering why he had gotten pushed away before he even could have tried something when Sonic hadn't done so any of the times before.

"Alright, Shad, it seems it is the time to reintroduce you to the term known as 'personal space'. You used to be very fond of it before this whole affected-by-serum thingy—"

A dark eye-ridge rose at the seemingly random remark, but otherwise Shadow didn't do anything else and let him speak. Sonic quite welcomed this gesture of cooperation as he really would like to avoid having to resort to violence while dealing with the drugged hedgehog; he still felt little bad about biting Shadow the first time, though it was undoubtedly necessary back then and he judged that they were somehow even with Shadow giving him a hickey. But while Shadow's tongue must have been fully healed already given the ebony agent's enhanced healing, unfortunately for him the hickey could stay for days.

Which reminded him, he really needed to scold Shadow for _that_.

"—Personal space means keeping at least an arm length away from other people so they won't get _uncomfortable_ because of you," Sonic explained in a haste, giving a strong emphasis on the 'uncomfortable' part to subtly inform Shadow that his constant attention to his self wasn't exactly appreciated. And when Shadow's lips pulled into a frown just a moment later, Sonic presumed the agent had understood his hidden message.

"Also when we are now on the topic of what makes people uncomfortable—" The hero was vaguely aware that he was beginning to ramble at this point but he really needed to get this over with before Amy's return. "No other hickeys. I don't care how amusing you find Amy running around the house, destroying my stuff in search of 'you'." Sonic made a quotation marks with his fingers, Shadow's scowl deepening at the same time for some reason. "I'm not willing to deal with any journalists that may find my hickey as something worth investigating. I have to deal with the press making up gossips about me on daily basis, so there's no need to give them an actual _fuel_."

Shadow opened his mouth, clearly planning to say something in response, but just then Amy appeared from behind the corner with empty hands that wordlessly explained she hadn't found what she wanted.

So the ebony agent closed his mouth again, the hero guessing that the ebony agent knew he wouldn't appreciate Amy learning that the mark on his neck was truly a hickey and thus was keeping the comments to his speech to himself for now.

Amy sighed as she walked over to the two of them, giving them an odd look when she noticed how unusually close they were standing. However, she didn't comment on it and instead she started taking her apron off. "Your garden doesn't have what I need. I'll have to buy it. Could you, please, take me to the grocery store, Sonic? It would take me at least two hours if I had to make the trip on my own," she said, both knowing that with his extraordinary speed the trip to the shop would take twenty minutes. Tops.

"Uh, sure," Sonic replied, turning towards Shadow to ask him to not follow him for once, but the ebony agent threw him for a loop before he could even utter the first word.

Because Shadow said, "I stay," and then wordlessly walked back to the stack of potatoes that still weren't peeled and then resumed his work without another word or a look to them.

Feeling uneasy about this sudden change of attitude of the ebony agent, Sonic frowned, not sure what to think about Shadow suddenly letting him go alone when he was so adamant about staying around him before.

Should he be worried about this?

"Well, then let's go! We don't have all day!" Amy urged him when he continued to stare at Shadow, confused and wondering. At first he didn't budge but when Amy gave another tug to his arm, he snapped out of his pondering over what could possibly be going on in the other's spiky head and turned to her.

The pink female gave him a big smile and then she began to drag him out of the kitchen once more. With a last curious look to the ebony agent who didn't pay any attention to them even now, Sonic turned around the corner and let himself be lead towards the main door. However, just as he reached for the door handle so he could open the door and then hold it for Amy like a gentleman, a quiet cough from said female alerted him he shouldn't do so yet.

Questioning green eyes turned to look at Amy, who now looked a little nervous for some reason. "Maybe you should hide that bruise first before we leave the house. You know, just so somebody wouldn't jump to conclusions like me if they spot it..." she explained and vaguely gestured to his neck, obviously feeling little awkward about bringing the topic up again.

Sonic could honestly say she wasn't the only one feeling that way around here. However, apart from her, he didn't let it show and just said, "Oh, sure. Give me a minute!" and then ran upstairs into his bedroom.

He rummaged through his drawers until he found a simple brown neckerchief that he immediately took out of the drawer. Planning to tie it, he raised the neckerchief up to his neck and turned to the mirror that was hanging on the wall. However, just then, he was struck with curiosity about what the hickey that had angered Amy so much actually looked like. And so he let his hands droop to see how bad it really was, a big frown stretching across his face when he saw it.

It would be a surprise if somebody did _not_ spot it.

The cobalt hero looked over the dark mark again, realizing he truly couldn't leave the house before hiding it somehow. Therefore, he quickly wrapped the neckerchief around his neck, tying its ends into a knot at the back of his neck so it wouldn't fall off. He checked himself in the mirror to make sure the piece of cloth was covering his neck fully and only then, he ran back downstairs and finally left the house with Amy in tow.

All the while wondering why he had the feeling that the hickey's purpose was to have some significance rather than being just simple means of amusement for Shadow.

O-o-O-o-O

"I could just make pasta," Sonic argued but Amy seemingly didn't listen to him, too preoccupied with choosing the stalls with best looking vegetables and striking a small chat with the vendors.

Like she had been doing for past _forty-five minutes_.

"And what is pasta best with? A tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes!" his pink companion announced after a brief pause, proving wrong his belief that she wasn't listening to him. Then, once she paid for a bag of the aforementioned red fruit, Amy walked over to him.

Sonic was sure she could easily see he still hadn't found his enthusiasm about her idea of stopping by to buy some extra fresh vegetables at the farmers' market—with which she'd came up when they passed it on their way from the grocery store—but she didn't comment on it anyhow.

Sonic frowned slightly. "Well, yeah, that's true . But we really need to return back—Shadow might be calm at the moment but we still don't know if the serum won't—"

"Stop worrying about Shadow! He can take care of himself—and if anything happens, Tails is there with him!"

Sonic sighed. _That's what I'm worried about._ Shadow was unpredictable at the moment—there was no guarantee he wouldn't suddenly snap and go on a murderous rampage like he had already done before. The agent's temper wasn't something to rely on at normal occasion, who knew if it wasn't even less stable now when the strange serum was controlling his brain.

"Ames, we really need to—" Sonic started but was immediately interrupted by said female herself as she said, "Give me a minute!" before reaching into her boot and taking out a vibrating cell-phone, which she then flipped open, her green eyes taking a quick look at its screen.

"What a luck! Tails is calling right now! You can ask him how things are going back at home!" Amy announced, practically shoving the phone into his hands before turning around, saying, "Call if you need me!" and then walking off yet again.

Sighing, the cobalt hero watched the female approach yet another stall—this time looking intently at various lettuces, probably judging them and trying to determine which one was the freshest, making the previous ten minutes trip slowly turn into one hour long trip. Sighing once more, the hero forced himself to look away and then finally accept the call, bringing the pinkish cell-phone to his right ear just a moment later. "Hey, Tails, everything still alright at home?"

_"Um—yeah! Sure!"_ was the fox's quick reply, the younger male probably a bit surprised to hear him instead of Amy. _"Shadow hasn't been causing any trouble so far,"_ Tails added to reassure his older brother everything was going fine. _"I'm just calling to ask how long it'll be until you're back."_

Emerald orbs turned to look at the pink female, who was currently animatedly chatting with a vendor, the conversation seemingly more interesting her than the vegetables the vendor had on a display.

"Given how long is Amy taking with each item..." Sonic started, green eyes sweeping over the market place to see how many stalls they hadn't visited yet. "...Another hour probably?"

_"Oh, okay then. I'll try to come up with something that'll keep Shadow busy for that long..."_

"I suggest asking him to help you clean up the workshop. No offense, but that place is an absolute mess," Sonic replied, recalling the big room littered with all kinds of finished and unfinished projects. "It definitely could use some cleaning."

_"Um, I've actually already done that already and somehow it took him only five minutes to clean it all up,"_ Tails muttered quietly, still dumbfounded by how fast the agent had managed the task.

"What?! You're joking, right?" Sonic asked, disbelieving. "There was like thousands projects and some of them were freaking huge and heavy! How on Mobius did he move them?"

_"Well, as it seems, he can lift over 350 pounds just with one hand..."_ the young genius explained quietly, his tone betraying his uneasiness about this fact.

Sonic blinked in surprise at this information. He was aware that beside quick feet, Shadow had an immense strength as well—perks of being created by one of the most brilliant scientist that have ever lived—but so far he had never seen Shadow actually lift anything _this_ heavy. It seemed Knuckles actually had a competition in his field.

With an image popping up in his head, the cobalt hero chuckled. "Oh, Chaos, just imagine the weight-lifting competition between him and Knuckles..."

O-o-O-o-O

Amy let out an angry huff as she glared at the lettuces before her, frustrated that her plan wasn't working. She had asked Sonic to bring her to the grocery store—and then market—so they could spend some quality time together and away from anybody else! But so far the only thing Sonic had done was that he'd repeatedly insisted that they needed to come back because Shadow _this_ , Shadow _that_ —Why was Shadow suddenly the center of Sonic's world?!

_She_ should be the center of his world!

"I know this expression—Your boyfriend is neglecting you, isn't he?"

Amy's green eyes snapped up to look at the vendor who had just spoken. Seeing the human woman was looking somewhere else, she followed the woman's gaze only to see Sonic standing there with the cell-phone still in his hand, bringing it up to his ear just a moment later. The pink heroine then looked back at the vendor who was now smiling kindly at her, deep understanding shining in her dark brown eyes.

Somehow this simple display of emotions was enough to get Amy to answer. "...Yeah." The pink female sighed. "And no matter what I do, he won't pay any attention to me..."

"I may have a solution to this exact problem..." the vendor replied, smiling mysteriously.

The strange response immediately piqued Amy's curiosity and brought back hope of getting back Sonic's attention. "You do?"

The woman nodded and then she bent down, for a moment being hidden by the boxes of vegetables from Amy's view, but once she straightened her back again, there was a tiny glass bottle full of purple liquid resting on her palm. Amy gazed at the mysterious glass container curiously, wondering what could it possibly be.

"A formula to this potion has been passed in my family for generations," the woman started, a prideful look now making its way to her face. "And I can assure you it hasn't failed a single time of the four centuries it has been in use. Just three drops of this potion are enough to make any man desire you so madly that he'll fulfill your every whim the moment you voice it."

"So, it's a love potion!" Amy said, her eyes shining with excitement at the thought of Sonic finally paying some attention to her.

The vendor chuckled. "Well, I don't believe love potion is the correct term but if you want to call it that..."

However, Amy didn't seem to notice the woman's small remark as instead she started to bounce on the spot, impatient to get her hands onto this potion. "How much?"

"...It's free for you," the vendor declared after a moment of pondering, handing her the bottle, which Amy, of course, eagerly accepted.

"Thank you so much!" the pink heroine said, already putting the flask into the hidden pocket of her dress.

The vendor smiled. "Don't use more than three drops, more would cause a _big_ trouble. Do you understand?"

"Of course! "Amy confirmed immediately—but in reality she was barely paying any attention to what was the vendor saying, too preoccupied with imagining the romance she and Sonic could have thanks to this potion. "I'll make sure to use it once I have the chance!" she added and then turned to leave, skipping towards to Sonic and already forgetting the vendor's warning.

It surely wasn't anything important, right?

With a big smile, the female lunged herself at the still phoning hedgehog, who clearly hadn't expected it as a flash of surprise went over his face and in a moment of shock weakened his grip on the cell-phone which then dropped onto the ground, falling apart into pieces upon the impact.

Anxious green eyes stared at the broken device. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Amy! I'll buy you a new one—" the hero began to apologize, but Amy just waved him off with a big smile on her face.

"Don't worry about it, Sonic!" she said, hooking their arms together and then she started to drag him away, not bothered in the slightest by the fact her cell-phone had been just destroyed.

Sonic looked warily at her, clearly uneasy about the fact that she wasn't angry at all and unsure what to think about her reaction—but Amy didn't want to ruin the opportunity, which she had just got, by explaining her reaction and so she simply smiled at him again, saying, "Come on! Let's get back to your house!"

That apparently was enough to divert Sonic's attention as he didn't ask anything. He simply picked her up and broke into a run, the sound of sonic boom and gush of wind the only things left at the market place after their departure.

O-o-O-o-O

With a frown forming on his face, Tails looked over the scans before him once again and then he turned his focus back onto the book about neuroscience on his lap, re-reading the three long paragraphs about hypothalamus one more time.

_This makes no sense!_ the young genius frowned once he finished reading it over for the fourth time, turning his sky blue eyes to look at Shadow, who was currently at the other side of the room trying to remove the door that Amy had damaged earlier as he had instructed him to do. However, because the hinges were damaged as well the door couldn't be lifted free as it normally was supposed to do so Shadow needed to remove the whole door frame—and as it seemed he was in the middle of the process so that left Tails with another ten minutes until he would have to come up with another activity for the ebony hedgehog.

"Hey, Tails, we're back!" Sonic's voice sounded from the back-door, the cobalt hero himself appearing in the doorway just a moment later, his green eyes widening when they saw the perfectly organized workshop.

Letting out an admiring whistle, Sonic looked around the workshop. "Whoa, this place really is spotless!"

"Perfect work, Shads!" he added when his eyes caught a glimpse of the ebony agent by the second door.

Shadow looked taken aback by the sudden praise, for a moment actually halting in his task to send a surprised glance to the cobalt hero who then gave him thumbs up. Shadow stared at him for a moment longer and then, with a snort—which Sonic believe was supposed to translate as something along the lines of 'Of course, it's perfect. It's my work, after all,'—he turned back to the damaged frame, giving no more attention to either one of the heroic duo.

Chuckling and shaking his head at the other's reaction to his praise, the blue speedster shook his head and turned his attention back to the young genius, thus missing the tiny smile that had appeared on Shadow's face right before he did so.

Sonic walked over to Tails, raising a curious brow at the young scientist with book in his lap and what appeared to be brain scans on the monitor before him. "Shadow's?" he asked, assuming Tails might have done those while he and Amy had been out.

Tails nodded. "I've made them right after you and Amy left. The brighter the color the higher the brain activity is in the particular area," the young genius started to explain, setting the book onto the table to have free hands for pointing out specific areas. "As you can see the activity of Shadow's cerebral cortex, especially Broca's area, is greatly inhibited while his hypothalamus is practically in overdrive."

"...and that means...?" Sonic asked, having no idea what did these brain parts actually control.

"Cerebral cortex is where higher thinking takes place—rational thinking and such. Broca's area is place where language formation takes place—its inhibition is the reason why Shadow talks so little now and why he is suddenly incapable of making grammatically correct sentences. With such low activity it's wonder he even is still capable of some kind of verbal communication. Luckily, the Wernicke's area—which is responsible for language comprehension—seems to be only mildly affected so even if Shadow might have trouble talking to us, he won't have trouble understanding us."

Sonic frowned. Why would Eggman want Shadow to be incapable of speaking? Maybe inhibiting Broca's area might have been an error on the Eggman's part and he meant to inhibit Wernicke's? Was that why Eggman had been so sure he would not be able to convince Shadow to refrain from achieving his desire? Because Dr. Egghead had believed the serum would make Shadow incapable of understanding the simplest of arguments?

"And what about that hypo-thingy?" the cobalt hero asked, wondering how that one fit into this all.

"Hypothalamus controls hormone secretion; hormones control all emotions. So theoretically higher activity of hypothalamus should mean more hormones being secreted and thus Shadow should feel more intense emotions and have more drastic mood swings than normally. However, in reality that's not happening..."

Worried blue eyes moved from the monitor to stare at ebony agent, who still had his back turned to them.

"And I have no idea why that is."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-01]


	5. Lies and Half-truths

"But isn't it better like this? I mean him not throwing a temper tantrum every few minutes will definitely make things much easier in the long run," Sonic argued, not understanding why this was such an issue.

Tails sighed. "It's not better, Sonic. His hypothalamus is in overdrive and yet he's not having mood swings— _something_ is clearly wrong here—and if we don't know what this _something_ is, we might not know how to react once it manifests itself fully."

"Or maybe is Shadow just really good at dealing with his emotions," the cobalt hero suggested as an explanation.

Tails just gave him the 'Are you being serious?' look. "Should I remind you that he almost blew up the planet at one point? And that he attacks you out of anger at least once a week?"

"He was grieving his best-friend's death during the Eclipse cannon incident—I highly doubt that is something that can be hold against him," the older hero argued; he was absolutely sure no one would be able to stay level-headed if the same happened to their friend.

Or at least _he_ wouldn't be able to do so if Tails died.

(Though at least now he knew he better hide all gigantic cannons that could possibly obliterate the planet in case something like this happened again.)

"—and I provoke him on purpose so him throwing anger fits is probably my fault," Sonic added with a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his neck. He knew it was kind of childish of him but he _really_ enjoyed riling up people; and, unfortunately for Shadow, the ebony agent (along with Knuckles) was one of his first choices to go to when he wanted to play the mischief-maker.

Tails sighed, shaking his head. "Let's just hope you're right about this one—but I'll make some more tests just in case."

"I guess that's fair enough," the cobalt hero replied, shrugging his shoulders, as he looked over to where his ebony counterpart should be standing only to find the spot devoid of Shadow's presence and the once-damaged door replaced with its identical replica. Sonic blinked slowly; he hadn't even _heard_ Shadow leave.

Shadow really knew how to sneak around without getting noticed.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later then. I'm gonna check on Amy and then possibly try to find where Shadow has gone," Sonic commented, waving his hand as a sign of goodbye as he started to walk away from the other.

"Send him here once you find him! I need to make a few more tests!" Tails called after him.

"Sure!" Sonic called back, the door clicking shut right after his shout.

Tails sighed and then, once again, glued his gaze to the science book on his lap to search for the answers to his questions.

Which he knew he most likely wouldn't find but he was willing to try.

O-o-O-o-O

Upon entering the kitchen, Sonic raised his brow not sure what to think of the sight before him. By the stove, both Amy and Shadow were standing, the ebony hedgehog looking at female with an intense look, while the pink heroine had the expression of a deer caught in the headlights.

"Is there some problem here?" the hero asked, the question making Amy let out a startled squeak—she clearly hadn't noticed him.

"W-what? A problem? Of course not!" Amy replied hurriedly with a clearly forced laugh, tripping over her own words as she quickly stuffed something glassy into the pocket of her dress, forcing a smile on her face just a moment later.

Sonic furrowed his brows at the female's strange behavior, trying to determine whether he should question it or leave it be. Then he shook his head, coming to the assumption that Amy was probably just being jumpy because of Shadow's momentary attitude; when you didn't know Shadow well enough, it was sometimes hard to determine from the agent's body-language alone whether he was just in bad mood or silently plotting your murder for something you had done.

"Alright then." Sonic shrugged his shoulders as he walked over to the duo. He patted his ebony rival's right shoulder to get his attention, the action finally making Shadow switch from watching Amy like a hawk to gazing at him. "Tails said he needs to do a few more tests. Do you think you'd mind...?"

Shadow's lips pressed into a thin line. "...Watch her," was all he got as a response from Shadow, the ebony agent shooting Amy a warning look before he walked past him and out of the kitchen, most likely for heading Tails' workshop as had been asked of him.

Sonic raised a curious eye-ridge at the seemingly random remark, not sure how to interpret it. Rubbing the back of his neck in thought, the speedster turned to Amy, a questioning look on his face. "So...what was that about?"

"Who knows," Amy replied quickly, moving to the kitchen counter and then starting to remove all the dishes and kitchen utensils that were no longer necessary.

Sonic frowned lightly at the clearly rushed reply, sensing Amy was wasn't being completely honest with him. But he didn't call her on that as she continued speaking.

"He just came and started to give me this really mean eye," Amy said, a small frown on her face as she turned her head to look at him again. "Why is he even here? Shouldn't Rouge be the one looking after him when she works with him?"

"She's busy—trying to get Shadow's blood-sample from GUN so that Tails can find an antidote to the serum faster," Sonic explained, giving her a helping hand with moving the dishes to the sink.

"And how long is he going to stay with you?"

"Dunno. Probably a few days." Sonic shrugged his shoulders, now turned to the dish-filled sink and thus missing the discontented look that flashed across the female's face. "Maybe more. It really depends on when Tails finishes the antidote."

"I see..." Amy muttered quietly, not sounding exactly enthusiastic about this fact. Sonic wasn't either, but he didn't let it show anyhow and instead focused his attention on helping Amy finish their lunch.

The less he thought about it, the better.

O-o-O-o-O

"This is a _very_ late lunch..." Tails commented as he sat down at the kitchen table, looking over to the pink and blue duo that were just placing the food on the plates.

"Or you can look at it as an early dinner!" Sonic commented with a chuckle and a light jab to the fox's ribs as he placed a food-filled plate before the fox. "Eat up!"

As he plopped himself down onto his own seat, Sonic placed his own plate onto the table. "By the way, where's Shads?"

"He should be here in a minute," Tails replied in between his bites, "I ran few tests to ensure the serum doesn't have any negative effects on his stamina or senses, so he's getting a shower to freshen up."

"Oh, okay."

"You two could have waited for me, you know," Amy commented with a frown as she sat down next to the already dining heroes, clearly considering the fact that they had started to eat before she even had the chance to seat herself as rude.

Sonic gave a light laugh. "Sorry, Ames, but if you got attacked by Eggman as often as we do, you would know eating fast is the key—otherwise you could end up having to fight hundreds of robots with an empty stomach for the rest of the day," Sonic explained, Tails giving a hum of agreement as with his mouth full he couldn't give a proper answer. "And, besides, it's better to eat while the food's still warm!"

"Food doesn't get cold in a single minute," she commented, still giving them a disapproving look.

However, Amy's remark was ignored as at that moment a clinking of metal shoes against kitchen tiles sounded, announcing Shadow's arrival.

Sonic immediately turned his gaze from Amy towards the kitchen entrance. "Food's on the counter! Help your-...self..." the hero's voice trailed off into silence as his gaze fell onto Shadow, the agent's fur still partly damp from his recent shower, the moistness of the black pelt allowing Sonic to admire the prominent lines of the strong muscles hidden underneath—

"Sonic!" Sonic jerked as he was roughly brought back into reality by Amy's loud call. The hero blinked in confusion.

"Huh?"

"You've spaced out a bit there," Tails explained, a worried expression on his face. "Are you feeling well?"

"Well?" Sonic repeated, his mind still trying to catch up with the current events. He shook his head to clear it. "Yeah, sure. I've just gotten a bit lost in thought," he replied with a wave of hand as he lowered his head and returned to stuffing his slowly reddening face with food.

Amy and Tails exchanged a confused glance at the strange reply but did not question the hero further.

_I've just been mesmerized by Shadow's body. This better be a new way to seduce me because, hell, otherwise I'm really going to fail once he starts_ _ **trying**_ _again..._ Sonic mused internally, daring to take a quick look at the ebony agent who had just sat down to his right and, in much less hurried manner than the duo of brothers had done, began to silently eat his own portion while Tails and Amy chatted about something that Sonic's ears didn't bother to register. _Though it's still bugging me why he's stopped with that so suddenly..._

Maybe was the serum leaving Shadow's system for real this time; and thus making Shadow return back to his avoidant self? Or was it just another false alarm?

...or maybe was Shadow plotting something on him?

However, Sonic didn't even have any opportunity to mull over this theory as his train of thought was interrupted by an insistent tap to his left shoulder. "Sonic, you're not listening to me at all!"

"Hmm?" The cobalt hero turned his gaze to the speaker, seeing Amy standing there with three already empty plates and, from the periphery of his vision, Tails and Shadow talking about something—well, Tails really did most of the talking as Shadow just nodded or shook his head in response—but neither had a plate before them.

Just how long had he been lost in thought?

Amy gave a tired sigh. "I asked you if you'll finish that or if I should throw it away—I'd like to wash the dishes now."

"Oh, just give me a second," Sonic said, the food disappearing from the plate faster than Amy could blink. Then he got up and with sonic-speed swept the other plates from Amy's hands.

He was already standing by the sink when Amy realized what just happened. The pink heroine gave him a surprised look at which Sonic responded with a smile and short "I'll handle this." He placed the dirty plates next to the sink. "You've already done a lot today. Take a minute to relax."

"I'll take a break once we finish this," Amy replied, looking eager to help him, taking the dish towel. "It'll take less time if we do it together!"

"...Well, if you insist," the speedster said in the end, shrugging his shoulders.

Sonic slowly took off his gloves so he could wash the dishes, revealing his fawn colored hands, now tainted by a purplish marring. The cobalt hero blinked slowly, the fingers of his right hand coming up to trace the dark bruises on his left, the discolored skin only on his wrists and partly on his fingers.

Where did he get them?

_Oh, yeah...Shadow,_ he realized just a moment later, recalling the memory how violently Shadow had pushed him against the wall back in the cell; that must have been when it happened.

"Chaos, what happened to your hands?!"

Blinking as he returned to the present moment, Sonic turned his head towards the voice, Amy worriedly looking over his bruised hands.

Feeling kind of self-conscious, the hero drew his hands closer to his body, deciding to go for a truth stripped of details once again. "...Shadow did them back at Egghead's base," the speedster replied and after seeing how Amy's face twisted in plethora of negative emotions, he quickly added, "It was purely by accident, though!"

The female lowered her gaze, her lips pressing into a thin line.

"Still..." Amy softly grasped his right hand with both of hers, running her fingers over the bruises situated there. "Are you sure you'll be safe? You said he's not fully himself at the moment." She gave the ebony agent a quick glance over her shoulder and then she continued in whisper, "What if he becomes violent? I don't want you to get hurt more—You should keep away from him..."

Sonic sighed. "Bruises are nothing I couldn't handle, Amy, don't worry," he said, drawing his hand from hers to start washing the dishes. "They'll heal soon."

Amy only gave him an unconvinced stare.

And Tails wondered why the ebony hedgehog before him looked so dispirited suddenly.

O-o-O-o-O

"Um, are you sure you want to stay?" Sonic asked, trying not to show how reluctant he was about letting the girl stay at his house; it was really late he knew that—but he would gladly take Amy home if she wanted to. "I mean you'd surely—"

"Of course, I want to stay!" Amy replied even before he could finish his sentence, the loudness of her voice making him flinch involuntarily; she usually raised her voice like this when she was about to start chasing him with a hammer.

Forcing himself to relax as he let out a tired sight, the cobalt hero rubbed the back of his neck. "Okay then. But just so you know, we don't really have any extra beds. Only couch..."

"I can sleep on the bed in my workshop," Tails offered as he emerged from around the corner. "I find it more comfortable than my own bed anyway."

"Thanks, Tails!" Amy clapped her hands happily as she skipped over to the staircase, halting there and turning back to them. "It's the second door on the left—right?"

"Yeah, that's the one," the young genius nodded. "Goodnight, Amy!"

"Goodnight to you too, Tails!" she said with a smile, practically flying up the stairs, where she then added, "You too, Sonic!" and then disappeared from their sight—all in a span of a mere two seconds.

Sonic waited for a moment just in case Amy remembered she wanted to tell them something and returned; but when it didn't happen, he just turned to the younger Mobian, putting on a serious face. "Don't think you sleeping in the workshop means you can work deep into the night. You're still going to bed at acceptable hours," he warned him. "By the time I'll check up on you, you better be in the bed already."

"Yeah, yeah," Tails replied, waving him off, knowing that despite the 'disobey me and consequences shall be dire' act Sonic was trying to pull off, there was no real threat; just the possibility of slightly embarrassing instance of getting carried into a bed and then being tucked in like a small child. "You always give me this speech, Sonic, I already know it by heart."

"You still barely follow it."

"I'm getting better," Tails argued, mimicking his brother's serious face and tone.

Sonic laughed at the other's impression of him and then messed the fox's head-fur fondly. "You've still got a long way to go, buddy."

Tails sighed as he fixed the head-fur Sonic had messed. "Goodnight, Sonic."

"Yeah, goodnight to you too, Tails," the hero replied as he watched Tails walk away towards his workshop, the young fox disappearing behind the recently-changed door just a moment later.

_I guess it's the **time**..._

Sighing, Sonic started to approach the living room, not really looking forward to interacting with Shadow without other people around; he still wasn't sure whether the ebony agent had been just following Rule No. 2 all the afternoon and evening or if there was some other reason behind his behavior.

So, yeah, he honestly had no idea whether he should expect sudden attack the moment he walked into the living room or if he should expect something completely different.

—Though this completely different category definitely didn't involve seeing Shadow silently dozing off on the couch.

The cobalt speedster watched the other hedgehog from his spot by the doorway, surprised. Shadow looked...peaceful. It was strange seeing the usually uptight agent looking so relaxed and carefree.

_Though it's definitely not as strange as his today behavior,_ he mused internally; Shadow's sudden behavior change still bugged him. _Could it because of what I've said before we left with Amy?_

The cobalt hero slowly approached the sleeping hedgehog, black ears weakly twisting in his vague direction as he came closer, the small movement showing that the ebony agent was sleeping lightly and thus could easily be woken up if he was too loud.

_Maybe I've hurt his feelings somehow? He has been looking quite low in spirits for the rest of the day now when I think about it..._

Sonic unfolded a blanket which he had taken from a nearby cabinet, draping the cloth around Shadow's form as he did not wish for him to get cold during the night.

_I'll apologize to him tomorrow,_ the hero decided once he finished adjusting the blanket, turning to walk away just a moment later.

_Hopefully, that'll be enough to set things right between us once again._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-01]


	6. Waking up and Regretting it

_Chaos, it looks even worse than yesterday,_ Sonic commented internally, by 'it' meaning the dark love-bite whose reflection he was currently studying in the mirror, the rays of the early morning sun providing him with just enough light to see it clearly.

He ran his fingers over the dark mark slowly, pondering what reason Shadow could have for making it in the first place. At first he'd believed that the agent had made it just to earn himself a laugh at Amy's reaction, but because of the size of the mark he was starting to have doubts about this theory; while an ordinary-sized hickey would definitely still earn him the same reaction from Amy, Shadow still decided to go for a giant mark that practically screamed 'Notice me!'

Heck, Shadow could have practically written 'Shadow was here' and it would have the same effect.

Peach hands froze as their owner realized that _that_ might have been exactly what the ebony agent was aiming for when he'd made the love-bite; after all, that was the whole point of love-bites—nothing said, 'This is mine,' clearer than a love-bite.

The cobalt hero rubbed the back of his neck briefly, letting his hand droop back to his side with a sigh just a moment later. Even though now he knew what point of the hickey was, it still hadn't shed light on what reason Shadow actually had for doing it—what kind of _desire_ was making the agent behave in this way.

Taking a deep breath, Sonic closed his eyes, trying to recall how exactly had his yesterday encounter with Dr. Eggman went and all the details that Dr. Egghead had disclosed about the serum before he threw him and Shadow into a cell.

...

_Chaos, why did his head hurt so much...?_

_**...Oh, yeah, Eggy's trap...** _

_The cobalt hero groaned in pain as he forced his eyes open and then closed them again when they were assaulted by the bright light that was in the room. He blinked a few times to adapt his vision, the colorful blobs in his vision soon morphing into more distinct shapes and then finally into easily recognizable objects._

_Green eyes swept over the room—which seemed to be a lab of some sort—taking in as much information about it as they could—all the exits, possible weapons to defend himself with, and other things that could help him get out of here..._

_"Don't even think about it, pest. You're not getting out of here that easily."_

_Emerald eyes sharply turned to stare at the speaker, a frown forming on the cobalt hero's face when he saw who it was. "Eggman."_

_" **Doctor** Eggman," the mad scientist corrected him. "But I guess that title is too long for such a simple-minded rodent like you to remember," he added, a mocking smile stretching on his mustache-decorated face that Sonic had the sudden urge to kick—but because he was secured to a wall with metal cuffs, the hero of Mobius could only stare at the evil genius from afar._

_Sonic shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever. What about if we jump right to what you plan with me? I don't assume you've let me live just so you'd have somebody to chat with."_

_"You're right, I haven't," Dr. Eggman confirmed, his lips changing into a disturbingly pleased smile. "Let me show you my newest invention."_

_The rotund scientist walked over to a desk in the middle of a room, on which only one item lay—a syringe containing a disturbingly green liquid. He took the syringe and made its way back to the restrained hero, a triumphant smile on the evil genius' face as he showed the syringe to Sonic who now eyed the sharp object with visible wariness._

_"This is SWD-1. It is a serum that inhibits left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex and stimulates limbic system—predominantly hypothalamus—and thus causes—" the rotund scientist started to explain but when he saw the confused expression on Sonic's face, he frowned and resorted to continuing his explanation with simpler language as he wanted the hero to understand what he was telling him, "—a person to turn into a mindless creature whose only concern is satisfying its deepest desires."_

_"...Sorry, my deepest desire is to eat chili-dogs until I burst like a balloon. That surely wouldn't profit you anyhow," the hero joked after a small pause, believing it was him on whom the evil megalomaniac planned to use the serum._

_However, just then Dr. Eggman asked, "Who said I am going to use it on you?" the question making Sonic's eye-ridges flew up in surprise._

_"Not me? Who then?"_

_"Him." The rotund scientist gestured to his left, the cobalt hero for the first time noticing the other hedgehog by his side._

_"Shadow!" Sonic called out in surprise, looking over the striped hedgehog, who was secured to the wall as well—but, apart from him, the ebony agent was still unconscious. The cobalt hero tried calling his ally one more time, but it received no reaction—not even a twitch of an ebony ear._

_Frowning, the hero of Mobius turned his attention back to the megalomaniac before him. "...Why him? What exactly do you think he'll do?"_

_Dr. Eggman smiled wickedly, the expression sending an unpleasant shiver up Sonic's spine._

_"Kill you, of course."_

_"W-what?!" Sonic asked with a slight stutter, worry coming to life inside him as the idea wasn't completely absurd. He was sure that if he got Shadow riled up enough the scenario would be possible—but he made sure to never drive the ebony hedgehog to that point. "That's nonsense, Shadow doesn't hate me that much."_

_But the evil genius just laughed as if had just said a hilarious joke, the red eyes hidden behind the dark goggles filled with malevolent glee. "Your naivety doesn't know limits, does it, Sonic?" Dr. Eggman paused, shifting his gaze to the ebony hedgehog and then walking over to him. "Just think about how much hostility he treats you with when he's in control of his emotions..."_

_The doctor lifted the syringe up to Shadow's shoulder, breaking the agent's skin with the sharp needle with no effort. "...How great must be the hatred that he **truly** harbors for you," he finished and released the serum; all of which disappeared in Shadow's bloodstream in matter of seconds._

_It was at the same moment that Shadow groaned and started to stir._

_"Without his rational thinking, Shadow will finally give into the want to kill you," Dr. Eggman explained as he made a few steps away, laying the no longer necessary syringe onto the table from which he'd taken it._

_"Let's see how long it will take him to tear you to shreds, shall we?" Dr. Eggman asked with a sinister smile and the he clapped his hands, the blue hero wondering what that gesture was supposed to mean._

_And just like the metal cuffs around his wrists gave away, the floor under his and Shadow's feet did too and they fell down into a small cell, the opening through which they had fallen closing immediately._

_Sonic immediately jumped up, shouting and demanding from the doctor to come back as they weren't finished yet._

_But all of his calls fell on deaf ears._

_..._

Opening his eyes again, the hero let out a huff of frustration. Even in his memory Eggman was everything but helpful. The doctor had just repeated what he already knew: Shadow desired him—but in what way he still did not know. Was it his body that Shadow desired? His heart?

Or...maybe both?

Shaking his head, the hero let out another sigh. There was no point in brooding about this matter. The only who could possibly answer this question was Shadow himself; and who knew—maybe even he didn't know the answer.

Green eyes traveled across the room, stopping only once they caught the glimpse of a brown fabric lying motionlessly on his bedside table.

Well, the neckerchief was definitely going to become a part of his daily attire for next few days that was sure.

Sighing once more, the cobalt hero reached for the brown cloth and then tied around his neck, trying to ignore the aversion he felt for the garment; he hated having things around his neck. Mostly because of the fact that one Dr. Eggman's robots had tried to strangle him with his own scarf about two years ago—since that time he'd been quite wary of wearing anything around his neck in case of a sudden surprise attack.

Plus brown really wasn't his color; it was just too boring for his taste.

After readjusting the neckerchief one more time so it would hang a bit more loosely around his neck without the risk of revealing the hickey, he gave an appreciative nod and finally moved to the door to exit the room, briefly stopping there to take a deep breath and mentally brace himself for a strenuous morning—as he had a feeling this day would be even more difficult that the one before it.

And with the thought he exited the room, unaware of how correct his intuition would prove to be.

O-o-O-o-O

Ears perking up at the sound of conversation taking place not far from him, Sonic descended the stairs, the owners of both voices—a familiar female agent along with his younger brother—coming to view a moment later.

"Morning," he greeted them as he approached the duo, noting the small blood-filled vial that the female was holding in her hand. "Oh, you've already obtained Shadow's sample?" he mused aloud, surprised. "I thought you said it would take some time."

"Well, I might have not gotten it via the _conventional_ means exactly," she admitted with a wink to him before turning to Tails and placing the vial into the waiting scientist's hand. "Don't waste it. It was difficult to get one so I'd like to avoid having to get another."

"Don't worry. I won't," Tails assured her, curling his fingers around the glass container tightly. "I'll go compare this with the samples we've made, I'll call you if I find anything!" the young genius announced, disappearing in his workshop in a blink of an eye.

"Sooo—am I supposed to expect GUN coming to barging into my house anytime soon?" Sonic asked, referring to Rouge's earlier remark.

Rouge snorted in amusement at the question. "I'm not a novice in this field, Blue. I made sure not to leave any evidence that could lead them to me."

"Good to know," Sonic replied with a short laugh. "But anyway—" The hero rubbed the back of his neck, pushing a broad smile on his face. "I'm thinking about cooking everybody pancakes for a breakfast. Do you want a couple as well?"

With an amused smile and a shrug of shoulders, Rouge replied, "Well, if you insist."

"Sure, I do. I'd be a bad host if I didn't," Sonic commented with a smile, heading for the kitchen just a moment later.

It took Sonic only a few quick steps to reach the desired room—and to find it, surprisingly, already being occupied by another of his guests, the pink-furred female just in the process of putting on her pink apron—which, by the way, he still had absolutely _no_ idea where she kept. (Possibly in the same pocket dimension as her hammer?)

"Oh, Sonic, I hope you've slept well!" she exclaimed, a bright smile on her face as she approached him, "I'm planning to make _Quiche Lorraine_ for breakfast. Would you like to help me?" the girl asked, eyes sparkling and practically begging him to say 'yes' as she tugged him by his hand towards the kitchen counter.

"Um, even though that sounds tasty—" To be honest, he had no idea what _Quiche Lorraine_ even was supposed to be. Maybe some Spagonian food? "—I've already promised Rouge my legendary pancakes—and you know how much I hate disappointing people."

"Rouge?" Amy repeated repeated, just now noticing the female bat, who had seated herself at the dining table and was now giving her a friendly wave.

"Oh," Amy breathed, her displeasure about the development of the situation clear. "Hello, Rouge, it's nice to see you again," she greeted her, her words visibly driven more by politeness and not sincerity at the moment. "What brings you here?" the pink heroine continued, green eyes widening briefly as her yesterday conversation with Sonic flashed through her head, making her quickly add, "Possibly to take over Sonic's job of looking after Shadow?"

"Oh, nothing like that. Sonic's the best at keeping Shadow _occupied_ ," Rouge commented with a smirk, enjoying the flash of red that went over Sonic's face at her remark and the confused look Amy send the hero's way when she saw him suddenly covering his face with one hand in embarrassment. "Also it took me a lot of effort just to convince the Commander to believe my word that Shadow is not doing anything worth investigating—it would be impossible to keep him from prying into what is happening if two of his best agents were suddenly incapable of going to work."

"So, um, what exactly are you doing here then?" Amy asked again as she still hadn't gotten her answer.

"She's just delivered Shadow's blood-sample from GUN," Sonic explained, slight redness still on his cheeks, as he walked around the kitchen, collecting the ingredients for the pancakes that he planned to prepare. "Hopefully, that'll help Tails prepare the antidote faster."

Amy blinked slowly, confused for a moment. "Is an antidote really necessary?"

Sonic turned to her, raising a questioning brow at her.

"I mean—you said that Dr. Eggman's drug was making him clingy _—_ " Green eyes darted at the sound of barely suppressed laugh to the dining table, Rouge looking like if she'd just heard a great joke and was now trying not to laugh. Shaking her head briefly at the bat's strange behavior, Amy turned her gaze back to the hedgehog before her. "—but I haven't seen him display this behavior beside that one time in workshop. He's already getting better on his own clearly."

The hero opened his mouth to speak, unsure how to reply to that. It was true that Shadow had not behaved 'clingy' a lot—well, beside the hickey and the kitchen episode of which he neither was planning to tell Amy about—but he still held the belief it was not because of the serum leaving Shadow's system. "...He had, you just weren't around at the moment."

Sonic pretended that he hadn't heard the muffled snigger from Rouge that sounded after that statement.

"Oh," Amy breathed, believing those 'moments' had happened when she had been already sleeping. "So, that's how it is..."

"Yeah, that's how it is," the hero affirmed, turning to the stove so none of the other Mobians could see his once again reddening face; just talking about it was enough to make him remember those exact moments with the _utmost_ clarity. "Now if you excuse me, I'm gonna make us all breakfast."

"I'll help you with that!" Amy announced, curling her hands around her hero's right upper arm. "Everything is faster and turns out better when the two of us work as a team!"

"I guess." Sonic shrugged his shoulders, not really for or against the idea; it was true that things were generally finished quicker when two people worked at them.

Amy smiled as she let go of his arm and walked over to the cabinet to find a good frying pan. "Plus this way we'll have the time even for a quick date!"

Preoccupied with mixing the ingredients, Sonic only replied, "Yeah, sure," to her exclamation, barely taking notice of what she'd actually said. However, just a moment after that he actually _realized_ it, his green gaze snapping up from the mixing bowl in his hands to the returning pink female. "Wait a minute—what?"

"A date, silly!" Amy announced, flicking the hero's long nose playfully once she was back by his side. Sonic immediately flinched backwards at the unexpected action. "You still owe me one for last week!"

"Last week?" Sonic furrowed his brows in confusion; he hadn't promised Amy any dates as far as he knew. "What for?"

"It's an unwritten rule that a boy has to take his girlfriend at least on one date in a week," the pink heroine explained in a matter-of-fact tone. "And you haven't invited me on any last week, which means you have to take me at at least two now!" she announced with a big smile, clearly pleased with this fact.

The cobalt hero frowned at the very much unvoiced order from the pink female before him. "Amy—but we aren'tdating."

The change in Amy's expression was immediate; which was at that very same moment that Sonic remembered why he'd always kept from correcting Amy's delusional claims.

And somewhere in the distance (aka the dining table) somebody whispered, "You shouldn't have said that, hon."

"Not dating?" Amy repeated, disbelief and anger starting to fill her voice. "But we are a couple, of course, we are dating!"

Sonic gulped anxiously; this was it—the confrontation he'd been avoiding for so long. For _years_. But now when it was here, he couldn't continue running away from it. "You proclaiming yourself to be my girlfriend doesn't make us a couple, Amy."

The pink heroine stared at him for a long time, eyes wide and unblinking. But then, with a cry, she lunged forward, startling him as she grabbed both of his hands in an iron hold.

Sonic winced as the action caused an impulse of pain shoot through his system, the strong grip rather painful on his bruised hands, the sensation itself briefly distracting him from the waterfall of words that was now leaving Amy's mouth.

"—unhappy with? What do I need to fix? The way I dress? My visage? I could start using more make up or dressing differently if you wanted me to—" Amy was speaking so fast, the hero barely had anytime to process what was being said. He opened his mouth, planning to stop the female in her monologue.

Well, if somebody hadn't beat him to it.

"Being self-centered. Now let go."

Both hedgehogs sharply turned to the new speaker, two surprised expressions blossoming on both of their faces when seeing the newcomer in their conversation.

Shadow gave a low hiss at his command not being obeyed. "Let go," he repeated once more, crimson eyes glancing at her hands, which were still squeezing Sonic's. "You hurting him."

Amy gazed in confusion at the ebony agent and then to her and Sonic's hands, not understanding what was Shadow speaking about as the young female still hadn't realized her tight hold was causing the speedster a significant level of discomfort.

Therefore, Shadow took matters into his own hands—and Sonic suddenly found himself thrown over a dark shoulder like a sack of potatoes, the female's grip reflexively slackening when she felt Sonic's hands being pulled from her hold.

"Gah!—Shads, what are you doing?!" Sonic yelped from his new position, unsuccessfully trying to twist his head to look at the darker hedgehog. "Put me down!"

"Yeah, what do you think you're doing?! Put him down!" Amy ordered him, making a move to do so herself. However, Shadow, instead of keeping still, made a step aside, preventing her from taking the cobalt speedster away from him.

"Moving him," Shadow replied to her earlier question with a scowl. "Far from you."

"From me?!" Amy repeated, her voice loud and filled with incredulity. "Why? Because he's not safe with me?" she asked him sarcastically in response to his earlier remark. "Last time I checked you were the one who took out his anger on him!"

Sensing how Shadow's body tensed at the accusation, Sonic bent his back, calling, "Rouge!" as he shot the aforementioned bat a quick 'Do something!' look; he'd knew both Amy and Shadow good enough to say that they were both just a step—or one verbal attack—from starting a fight.

"Sorry, hon, I'm having way too much fun to want to stop it," Rouge replied with an amused smirk, making no move to stand up from her seat and just watching the verbal exchange of the three hedgehogs before her.

Sonic gaped disbelievingly at Rouge for a moment, before once again trying to twist in Shadow's hold and making the 'T' sign with his hands. "Alright, time out, guys! _Time out!_ Violence is not necessary! We can talk this out!"

But instead of doing as Sonic asked of them, the two hedgehogs instead moved closer to each other, both crimson and jade orbs blazing as they locked gazes.

"But not brat which hit him for refused date," Shadow snapped back and Sonic didn't need to see Amy _to know_ that she was fuming.

And somehow...He doubted that the amount of destruction caused by the Hurricane Amy would remain at mere three broken vases this time.

O-o-O-o-O

"This really is not necessary, guys!" Sonic tried once again despite knowing that he had basically no chance of convincing the two to drop the fight. "Seriously, you'll both just get hurt!"

"He called me a _brat_ ," Amy hissed, her hands tightly curling around the handle of her hammer. "I cannot forgive that, Sonic."

"But—"

"Step aside," Shadow commanded him, he as well clearly unwilling to accept any kind of peace.

"Yes, step aside, Sonic," Amy agreed, "I don't want to hurt you by accident."

"But—"

"Just give up, hon. Both of them are too stubborn to back down," Rouge sounded from her place by the porch—at a safe distance from the field that the two had chosen as their battleground upon hearing her suggestion of moving the fight outside.

Despite Sonic's _very_ loud protests.

"They'll kill each other!" Sonic shouted from his place between the two hedgehogs, using his own body as a living barricade to stop the two from attacking each other.

The bat only sighed. "Hon, sometimes you just have to let kids settle an argument over their favorite toy on their own."

The fact that neither of the two angry hedgehogs took a moment to break the eye-contact and send a glare to Rouge for her remark just cemented Sonic's belief that he _should not_ let the two fight. "Rouge—"

"Just let them slap each other around for few minutes," the female agent cut in once again. "If things get bad, we'll jump in. It's that simple."

"Why are you not preoccupied at all?!" Sonic asked, throwing a disbelieving look her way. "Shadow is your friend, you should be worried at least a little!"

"Darling, I've seen Shadow fight more times than you two have sparred—I know I don't need to worry about _him_ ," Rouge replied, giving him a meaningful glance and letting her words linger before gesturing with her hand to the spot beside her. "Now come and stand here. You surely would preffer not getting kicked in the face by accident."

With a frown starting to slowly form on his face, Sonic glanced once more between the waiting hedgehogs, seeing the flame of anger burning in both the jade and the crimson eyes, both hedgehog clearly wishing nothing more than to pounce at the other in this very moment.

The hesitant hero glanced back to the spectating bat, who was now once more gesturing to the spot beside her. Briefly hanging his head, he let out a heavy sigh and then, finally, zipped to Rouge, coming to stand beside her at the very spot she'd been gesturing to. The female agent gave a nod to his cooperation and turned back to the waiting hedgehogs.

"Alright, kiddos, let's start!" She smirked, raising her arms and then clapping them loudly the moment she finished her countdown. "Three, two, one— _GO!_ "

And the two lunged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-01]


	7. Goodbyes and Hellos

Once more, Amy felt herself hitting the ground, another wave of pain flooding her already battle-worn exhausted body—keeping up with Shadow's attacks was  _much_  harder that she'd anticipated—but Amy was still refusing to back down; her body might already be aching all over and her head swaying with such a horrible vertigo she felt like throwing up but she still  _wasn't_  going to give up and let Shadow win. The guy  _needed_ to be taught a lesson and, as it seemed, no one except her was willing to do that.

Gritting her teeth, Amy tried to push through the pain and dizziness, managing to roll to her side but forcing to stop the motion there when the vertigo once more hit her with full force, making her feel as if up and down were constantly changing positions to the point that she physically felt incapable of standing up. Knowing that in situation like this she could do nothing but wait until the feeling went away, Amy, for the time being, focused on surveying the situation, blinking her eyes rapidly and squinting over the dirt that had fallen into them as she tried to to find the current whereabouts of both her opponent and her hammer.

However, the moment the jade orbs finally freed themselves of the dirt, Amy felt her blood ran cold as in that very moment she could see what the answers to both of her questions were—see the ebony hedgehog that was now towering above her, her own hammer held high above his head menacingly, ready to deliver the final blow.

And then suddenly it was being brought  _ **down**_ , its big looming shadow blanketing her form and tearing a terrified scream from her throat, the sound so loud it completely drowned out Sonic's own horrified "NO!"

The ground shook under the impact of the hammer colliding with its target and everybody could only stared wide-eyed.

But, most of all...

Amy.

The pink heroine laid still, frozen on the spot. Her jade eyes full of terror as tears threatened to fall from their corners. Her red-clothed chest was neither rising nor falling rapidly as instead she was holding her breath, the young heroine in shock that she was still alive and honestly afraid that the ebony hedgehog, who was now leaning over her, would kill her if she dared to even  _blink_.

She barely stopped herself from calling out in terror when she saw the striped gloved hands shift, the appendages slowly letting go of the hammer that had been driven into the ground barely a few inches above her head and had given form to the shallow depression in the ground in which she was currently lying.

Shadow straightened his back, gazing at her with a neutral expression on his face, not saying anything as multitude of emotions swirled in his red orbs.

"...Don't start a fight you cannot win," he muttered after a moment of stretched silence, warning clear in his eyes—then he turned around and began to walk away, far from the shaken female that let her tears flow only once he was ten yards away, the blue blur rushing to her side barely a moment later.

Upon seeing the female was having trouble breathing through her sobs, Sonic cupped Amy's face into his hands, forcing her to focus on him with the action. "Amy, you need to calm down and breath," he advised her, gently running his right thumb over her cheek to give her a distraction from the emotions that were currently overwhelming her. "Everything is alright, you're safe..." he continued in quiet whisper, not wishing to scare the terrified female even more.

Finally snapping from her catatonic like state, the girl gave a loud cry and wrapped her arms around the hero, pressing herself close to him desperately, her hot tears soon wetting the fur of his chest.

Sonic wrapped his arms around her in response, gently rubbing the female's back like he would do anytime Tails had a nightmare, murmuring quiet words of comfort into her ear. "It's good, Amy. Everything is alright. Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you..."

Green eyes briefly darted over to Shadow who was now watching their interaction from afar, an unreadable expression on the agent's face as he gazed at them. Sonic knew he should feel mad at Shadow for scaring Amy like that, but at the same time he couldn't really bring himself to be _that_ angry at the ebony agent—as, after all, Shadow had been provoked. Amy was the one who had started the whole argument that lead to this battle— _despite_  him asking her multiple times to drop the fight, which he knew Shadow wouldn't insist on if she'd decided to not fight—Shadow took greater satisfaction in intimidating his opponent than in a victory...as he had already shown here.

Feeling the female grip tightly onto his chest fur, Sonic turned his gaze back to her, once again giving his full attention to her by resuming with whispering small reassuring phrases into the female's ear and waiting until she calmed down to the point where only occasional convulsive gasps were leaving her. Seeing Amy was almost completely calm now, Sonic decided it was a good time to try move back to house, where she could rest and recuperate from the encounter.

"Do you think you can stand up now?" he asked calmly, moving one of his hands to grasp her own, the female's now slightly bloodshot eyes turning to him in surprise because of the action.

She wordlessly gazed at him for a brief moment, before she shook her head to unscramble her thoughts and quiet, "I...think I can," left her.

"Let's try," Sonic suggested as he uprighted himself, Amy following suit right after but using his hand as a support as her legs now felt too wobbly to hold her on her own.

"Good," he praised her, moving his other arm around her waist to give Amy more support while they walked. "Now let's move back inside, alright?"

But instead of beginning to move like he'd expected her, Amy instead froze in her spot and began to shake her head. "I-I don't want to be with  _him_ in the same house..."

"Umm..." Sonic glanced back to the building, seeing the GUN duo stand there, looking their way and waiting. "Then, um, do you want me to take you to your home...?"

A meek "Yes, please..." was all that left the pink heroine. Thus Sonic picked her up and headed for her house, hoping that this was the only nerve-wracking instance that he had to endure in this day.

But knowing his luck, he guessed that this hope was in vain.

O-o-O-o-O

"Hey, guys," Sonic addressed the trio somehow tiredly as he entered the workshop, sighing and massaging his neck to relieve the tension that had settled there. "Does anybody else feel as tired as me?" he asked aloud, the question more rhetorical than anything else.

Therefore, Tails chose to ignore it. "How's Amy?"

"Still shaken, but she's going to recover—I asked Mrs. Vanilla to look after her in the meantime," Sonic replied, walking over to them. "So how are Shadow's rediscovered speaking capabilities?"

"We're back to square one with those," Rouge commented as she pressed a bag of ice to Shadow's shoulder, the ebony agent immediately hissing disapprovingly at the treatment, but not really flinching away—it clearly helped to numb the ache that was left after re-locating the bone. "You'd have more meaningful conversation with a parrot than him."

"Huh?" The hero raised a brow, confused by the development of things. "What happened? He seemed to be doing pretty well while fighting Amy."

Tails sighed, the neuroscience book laid across his lap once again. "Well, I'm only assuming right now—as I haven't really had the time to do any tests yet—but I believe what most likely happened was that by him engaging in combat with another person, his body's acute stress response was triggered; thus hormones like epinephrine and nor-epinephrine were released into his blood-stream, which then tweaked his brain chemistry and inhibited the serum's effects for the duration of battle."

"Hmm?" Sonic furrowed his brows as he tried to make sense of what Tails had just told him. "...So, If I want to have a proper talk with him, I need to get him angry...?" he asked, unsure if he had understood correctly.

Tails nodded in affirmation.

Sonic chuckled amusedly. "You know, him getting angry usually leads to the exact opposite..."

"I can confirm that," Rouge sounded from her place beside Shadow, the agent immediately sending her a glare for this comment.

(But even he had to admit that was a truth.)

"Anyway, what about the blood sample that Rouge has brought?" Sonic asked, leaning against the workbench leisurely. "Did you have any luck with that?"

"I haven't really had the time to take a better look at it yet—which reminds me—! I wanted to ask you if Doctor Eggman said anything about what the serum contained. Like some chemicals he used or even what was the name of the serum...?" Tails asked, rising from his seat to go obtain said sample.

"Well, he called it SWD-1 but I'm not sure if that'll help you anyhow. Knowing him it's most likely just some random abbreviation like 'Sonic Will Die' or something similar." He shrugged his shoulders. "Speaking of Egghead, you know, we really haven't heard anything of Eggman yet and by now he must have noticed his plan didn't go as planned," Sonic commented, a frown forming on his face at this thought. "He has to be up to something already."

"We should start collecting the Chaos Emeralds just in case," Tails suggested, a small scowl of his own appearing on his lips and his brows furrowing. "Speaking of which—!" he said, grabbing what seemed to be some kind of poster from beside his laptop. "There's an event organized by the Accelovice today!"

"Accelovice?" Sonic asked, recalling hearing this name couple of times during the tournament in Metal City about a year ago. "They make Extreme Gear, right?"

Tails handed him the poster, Sonic confirming his suspicion of the company by simply laying his eyes on the poster, a trio of familiar Babylon Rogues on their trademark hover-boards staring back at him from the paper "A tournament?" he mused aloud, briefly reading through the poster's contents and blinking in surprise when he read the venue.

"Station Square?" Why would they make a such tournament around here? "But why? Extreme Gear racing is not really common here."

"It must be a promotion campaign to expand their market," Tails replied, gesturing to the small pile of envelopes that were lying beside Sonic's left hand. "Otherwise, they wouldn't go the lengths to send you a personal invitation."

"I assume there's something special about this tournament when you haven't thrown it away like the others," the hero commented, green eyes darting away from the poster to the young inventor for a brief moment.

Tails immediately nodded. "A Chaos Emerald is the main prize."

Sonic blinked, surprised. "Well, what a lucky coincidence for us," the speedster commented with a chuckle, green eyes turning to gaze at the poster once again. "So when is it taking place?"

Trying to recall the exact time, Tails furrowed his brows in concentration. "At 11 o'clock...?"

"Eleven?" Sonic questioned, looking over at the wall-clock, emerald eyes widening marginally when they saw the time. "But that's in twenty minutes! We're running late!" The hero whipped around and began to search the room to find for the Extreme Gear that should be around there somewhere—Tails always left it lying around at random places. "Let's just grab our Gear and head there—" Though that was definitely easier said than done. "—Tails, where did you leave the Gear?"

"You cannot bring your own Gear, hon, Accelovice themselves will provide all necessary equipment," Rouge suddenly sounded once again, drawing attention of all three males to her by speaking up. Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned against a nearby table. "It's to prevent competitors from sabotaging other riders—plus it wouldn't look good if somebody with a Gear that was not of their making won the tournament, would it?" she asked, an amused grin on her face.

"How come you know about the tournament so much?" Sonic raised a questioning brow, knowing Rouge didn't really have a great liking for EG riding.

"Originally, I planned to participate. I'd never pass on the opportunity to get my hands on such a beautiful gem," she replied with a dreamy smile before sighing. "Unfortunately, _circumstances_ will not allow me to compete. However, I'm sure you'll knock the other teams dead instead of me."

Sonic blinked. "Wait a minute—teams? It's a teams' tournament?"

"Yeah, it's a duos' competition," Tails affirmed, "You need to get somebody with you if you want to compete."

O-o-O-o-O

And because Tails was busy searching for the antidote and Rouge was busy with work, there was only one available person with an Extreme Gear riding skills that he could have taken along.

"So, what do you think, Shads? I'd bet this'll be one of the toughest Extreme Gear races yet," Sonic commented, looking over the giant assembly of people of which at least fifth seemed to be just riders. The hero grinned. "Man, this competition is really gonna be fun—Let's sign in!"

He set off in the direction of the registration booth, from the corner of his eye seeing his dark companion follow soon after, Shadow still mostly only surveying the area—all the food stands offering various kind of snacks, all the families with kids that were excitedly running around and trying to convince the riders to lend them their Extreme Gear, the same riders chatting with each other and the various TV staff-members that were running around and setting up everything...

Green eyes fully turned their attention on the booth before them; and once there on the young female rabbit that was sitting there.

"Howdy, how may Ah help you?" the woman asked with a smile on her face, her light green eyes looking at him with interest.

"I'd like to register our team. I hope it's not too late for that. We've learned about the tournament pretty late so..." he trailed off, rubbing his neck sheepishly.

"Yer in luck, Ah was just 'bout to close the booth. Just five more minutes 'n' nobody else could join," the female, 'Bunnie' as her name-tag suggested, explained, "Though Ah'm sho' Ah'd be allowed to make an exception for a hero of Mobius even if you were t' be late." She gave him a wink and handed him the registration form and a blue pen.

"Here, fill in yer names and sign at the bottom to confirm you agree with the tournament's rules—both of you—oh, 'n' you'll also have to pay the registration fee."

"Yeah, sure." Sonic quickly scribbled his name on the sheet and then handed it to Shadow, who took both items with a bit of uncertainty, while he himself handled the payment.

And after handing out the exact amount of rings and the sheet with both of their signatures on it, Shadow's a bit more legible than his—which was kind of surprising as judging by the agent's continued silence, it was more his muscle memory at work than actual word-forming capabilities.

The bunny nodded and began to type something into the laptop that she had by her side.

"Well, that should be all. Here is the tournament schedule, a map and yer rider IDs," Bunnie started, laying all aforementioned items before them. "The Opening Ceremony will begin in ten minutes. In the meantime you should head over here—" She pointed at a spot in the map. "—and retrieve yer Gear—that's what the IDs are for. Just show them to the staff here and they'll hand you a Gear of yer choosin'. Once you get yer Gear head here, that's where the Opening Ceremony will take place."

She pushed all the items to them and uprighted herself, her honey colored pony-tail bobbing as she straightened her back. "Do you have any more questions?"

Sonic shook his head. "No, thanks. That's all," he said, handing Shadow his ID before taking the remaining three items.

"Good then! Have a nice day and enjoy the tournament!" Bunnie said with a bright smile, waving them a good-bye as they began to walk away, the cobalt hero giving his own small wave before turning fully, only one objective on his mind.

"Alright, Shads! Time to get our Gear!"

O-o-O-o-O

"Well," Sonic started as he brought up the time schedule, deciding to use the time before their Gears were brought to look up in what kind of races they actually were going to participate today, "so as it seems there are gonna be four rounds. The first round—"

"My, my, my, whom do we have here? None other than Sonic the Hedgehog himself," a familiar voice cut in, sounding somewhere from behind them, the hedgehog duo turning around just a moment later. "For a moment I thought you weren't even going to show up."

"And not to give you a run for your money, Jet? Never," Sonic said, chuckling. "Plus we kinda need that Emerald, so..." he shrugged his shoulders, the mirthful grin still playing on his lips.

"Don't expect me to go easy on you just because of that," Jet replied, his sky blue eyes steering from the cobalt hero to the agent that stood beside him, Shadow clearly disinterested in their banter and just waiting for the walrus to return with their Gears, with arms crossed over his chest. "Anyway, how come you're here with Mr. Dark? Where are the shrimp and Red?"

"Couldn't come." Sonic waved it off, not wanting to expand on this information. "What about your team? Who's your partner? Wave or Storm?"

"Wave, of course." Jet gestured to his left, the rest of the Babylon Rogues, now accompanied by a brown female badger, who was handling her Extreme Gear with the same amount of wariness that an ordinary person would display at seeing a feral bear standing right before them.

"Though Storm is attending as well, however his partner is a bit well..." the hawk trailed off, sneaking a glance at the aforementioned badger, who choose that exact moment to active the Gear, the machine flaring to life with a low hum—which startled the female and made her throw the Gear into the nearest stall (luckily, an empty-one), all the time pointing and hissing at the hover-board.

"It's possessed, I tell you possessed!" she screamed, throwing a boomerang at the device—most likely to deactivate it—and when seeing it had no affect, dive in between the stalls and disappeared from their sight while yelling, "I knew it would find me eventually! Run for your lives!" over and over again, both Storm and Wave immediately going after her before she could cause a possible wide-spread panic.

"...eccentric?" Sonic suggested with an amused grin, watching as Jet went over to the discarded Gear to pick it up, a frown forming on the hawk's beak at his comment.

"We picked her up only because we just learned that three-member teams weren't allowed and we didn't have the time to search for anyone else," the rogue explained, his brows furrowing as he examined the Gear for possible damages. When he judged that beside a few scratches the Gear seemed to be in a perfect condition, he turned back to Sonic.

A determined expression settled on Jet's face, the hawk raising his arm and pointing at him to emphasize his words. "But don't think this is going to change anything, Sonic the Hedgehog—We're winning this tournament  _ _no matter what__."

"Same here, pal," Sonic replied with a wide grin; he could already tell the tournament was going to be one  _ _hell__ of a ride.

The look in Jet's eyes spoke for itself.


	8. Unexpected

The opening ceremony was short and to the point; they learned that there would indeed be four rounds, each with a different objective that would be announced right before the start of the round. Each contestant would be awarded points based on how well they fulfilled the objective and these points would then be summed up with their partner's to make their team score. After each round twenty-five teams with the lowest scores would be eliminated from the tournament. Fairly simple rules.

Though, judging by how the lynx spokeswoman kept on smiling mysteriously all through her speech, Sonic had a sneaking suspicion the races themselves wouldn't be as simple. Which he wasn't against; Extreme Gear racing was supposed to be challenging and he  _loved_ challenges.

So, he was honestly looking forward to the first round, excitement buzzing under his skin restlessly as he waited for the race to start, which surely would be happening at any moment now; all the hundred teams were already lined before the starting line in four rows, one member of each team positioned in the first or the second row while their partner was positioned in the third or the fourth for the teams to have equivalent chance for the first round.

To be honest, Sonic was really surprised they all managed to even fit on the track, though how exactly they were supposed to race when they were crammed like sardines in a can already at the very start remained mystery to him. Don't misunderstand him, the track wasn't narrow—it had actually about thrice the width of an ordinary racing track—but with this many people it didn't really leave much space for maneuvering.

However, he didn't really know if the rest of the track was the same width as the start as the Accelovice clearly wanted the look of the actual track to remain unknown until the very end; there was something akin to force field blocking the view of the actual track for both the audience and the competitors, letting them all guess to what it would look like.

Though Sonic didn't believe they would see much even if the field wasn't there—as the track was right now quite literally in the process of assembling  _ _itself__ _._

It was quite a peculiar show. If Tails were here, he surely would have had a field day with trying to figure out how the Accelovice managed to make the track pieces ignore gravity and fly themselves across the sky into their correct position to form what Sonic guessed—judging by the amount of pieces that had already flown by—to be the _longest_  Extreme Gear racing track in the world.

And the most complicated one as well. He could spot a glimpse of what looked like a three way that was heading into a sky and then sharply back down, twisting and curling variously in all directions. Heck, the track looked more like a roller-coaster ride than a racing track.

Well, the Accelovice definitely knew how to make the Extreme Gear live up to its name. That was for sure.

O-o-O-o-O

The instruction for the first round were simple—reach the finish line in the shortest time possible. The only catch was that both teammates needed to reach it and it would be the sum of their times than would determine their score. So even if one of the team reached the finish line first, if their partner arrived much later, they could still get easily eliminated from the tournament.

However, Sonic was convinced that wouldn't be their case; he and Shadow had tons of experience with EG and racing in general; there was no way they could lose this round.

Though that didn't mean Sonic wasn't excited for the race; there was this usual restlessness in his limbs that only seemed to grow as the countdown rapidly neared zero. Not able to stay still any longer, Sonic shifted into a starting position and just as he activated his hover-board and jumped up on it, the force barrier guarding the track gave away and he, along all the other riders, barreled forward into the unknown.

Quickly, Sonic analyzed the looks of the track; as far as he could see, the track seemed to consist mostly of glass tubes similar to the ones through which he and his friends had to travel while in the Metal City, though these ones were definitely much wider and more crooked than in the origin city of Extreme Gear technology.

The track consisted mostly of turns: left, right, up, down, sometimes offering even two options at once by branching into two separated paths—all repeating in endless combinations in fast sequences, giving them all practically no chance to speed up and rush through the track even if the rider got ahead of the 'peloton'.

Though that was clearly an intended fault; this exact complexity soon separated the riders into smaller groups, the more experienced riders easily getting into the front lines while the slower racers were in the back, not blocking the path for the others.

Sonic himself had managed to go into the very front, him and Jet repeatedly changing position of being first or second, this fact affected by which of them made a more effective maneuver at that next turn, Wave and Storm a few paces behind them and Shadow strangely still nowhere in sight.

It worried Sonic a bit.

Shadow was excellent at using Extreme Gear; even though he had started in the fourth row, he should have already caught up with them—

It was at that exact moment that Shadow choose to appear from the side, emerging from another tube that Sonic would swear  _wasn't_  there when he rushed past that section.

Man, just how complex this track actually was?

Confused, Sonic stared at his team-partner, a questioning look on his face. But Shadow did not offer any explanation and only pointed forward, reminding the hero there was a race he should be paying attention to.

Therefore, the cobalt speedster quickly turned his eyes back to the track before him, once again focusing on chasing after Jet that had gotten a rather bit of a head-start because of his inattention and was now heading into another section of the racing track; they were now getting onto less crooked parts of the track that appeared to be made of asphalt, gusts of fresh air rushing past them as they raced forward, occasional speed dashes now appearing along the ground.

__Time to kick it up a notch!__ Sonic chuckled as he aimed specifically for the dashes, the boosts of speed it gave him helping him to easily overtake Jet in a few seconds, the hawk gaping at him as he passed him; Jet had clearly believed he had left him far in the back.

"See you at the finish line, Jet!" Sonic teased him with a grin, wanting to provoke the rogue. And it clearly worked as something flashed in the blue eyes, the hawk scowling before he repositioned his feet on his hover-board and zoomed forward to catch up with him.

"Don't think I'll let you win so easily, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

The hero smiled at the remark and pushed his Extreme Gear to go faster as well, the spherical cameras that hovered above the track barely managing to keep up with them to keep track of their progress as they raced forward, now down a long slope, the finish now already becoming a visible silhouette in the distance.

"Hey, Jet, wanna make the race even more exciting?!" Sonic shouted over the wind that was rushing past them, hoping the other would hear him even over the clamor the wind was making.

And it clearly had as the hawk nodded with a self-assured smirk, bellowing his own, "Sure!"

"The loser buys the lunch!" Sonic screamed, a challenging smile on his face.

Sky-blue eyes filled with determination.

"You're on, hedgehog!"

O-o-O-o-O

"Well, that was...unexpected," Sonic commented as he hopped down from his Extreme Gear, taking the hover-board under his arm as he began to approach the side-lines where Shadow was already waiting, the cobalt hero giving a quick look to the nearby score board where more and more names were appearing as the racers reached the finish line. The first ten positions were filled with familiar names, among them even his and Jet's, of course. However, neither of them was in the first place. "I didn't really see that coming."

"Us both," Jet affirmed with a frown. "It surprised me too."

"Well, at least we know who to look out for in the next round," Sonic chuckled; Wave suddenly cutting in before them and passing the finish line as the first had been both shocking and hilarious—the latter mostly because of the face Jet had made when seeing it.

"So what are we gonna do about the bet—?" the hero started only to be interrupted a moment later.

"Considering—" a familiar voice cut in, the female to which it belonged appearing in their view barely a moment later, the now-smugly smirking swallow still perched atop her purple-colored Extreme Gear. "—that  _both_  of you have lost the bet, I believe now both of you also owe me a lunch."

"I guess that's fair." Sonic shrugged his shoulders, a grin plastered on his face. "You up for a pizza?"

O-o-O-o-O

It was only about ten minutes later that all four of them were sitting at a pizza stand, enjoying the early lunch—and a late breakfast in one, in case of certain hedgehog duo as neither of them had had the time to get a breakfast because of the hectic morning—which reminded Sonic—

"Hey, Shad, how's your shoulder? Any trouble so far?" he asked, turning to the ebony hedgehog by his side.

Shadow looked at him, briefly shaking his head in response before focusing his attention back to his own food while Sonic turned it back to the birds who were looking at him questioningly, not aware of the injury the agent had suffered just a few hours ago.

"He dislocated his shoulder earlier," Sonic offered as an explanation as he bit into the last slice of his pizza; Jet nodded in understanding while Wave didn't acknowledge his remark and instead raised her brow, her gaze locked at the ebony agent who had yet to contribute to the conversation anyhow.

"Mr. Quiet seems to be even quieter than usually," she commented, her sky blue eyes studying Shadow intently while her right hand continued to stir her drink with a red straw.

Both hedgehogs immediately looked up from their respective meals, sharing a few-second glance as Sonic urged his brain to offer an explanation Shadow could not.

"Um...he ate a bit much of ice cream so he's got a sore throat," he lied, hoping the rogue engineer would just take the lie and not prod further; he'd rather avoid any awkward conversations.

"Hmm, I wouldn't guess you as the ice cream type," Wave commented, this time directly turning to the agent.

"It was a bet," Sonic continued, taking a sip of his own drink for him to appear casual; he was no expert at lying but he knew how to pass under the radar in most cases, "between him and Rouge. You remember Rouge, don't you?"

"Of course, I remember her. She's quite an... _unpleasant_  woman," Wave commented, a frown now marring her face. "How come she's not here? Considering what the main prize is, I'd expect her to be here."

"She's at work," Sonic replied, "Though—"

"Boss," Storm's tired voice suddenly boomed, making them all turn curiously in his direction, the clearly exhausted albatross practically dragging himself to their table while the female badger that was his team-mate was trailing after him, appearing to be full of energy unlike her counterpart.

Storm flopped down on the bench next to his fellow rogues, taking up the last remaining spot at the Babylon Rogues' side of the table, the Extreme Gears that he had been carrying both unceremoniously being dropped to the ground a moment later.

"We've made it," he announced, laying his head and arms on the table in a total exhaustion. "We are 75th but we've made it."

"...Good work, Storm," Jet said after a small pause, both his and Wave's looks alone saying, none of the other Babylon Rogues had actually expected Storm and his companion to pass the first round. "Here have something to eat." Jet pushed the box with what remained of his pizza to the tired albatross, who immediately raised his head at the prospect of food, clearly interested as his pupils immediately widened.

Sonic chuckled at the sight and turned to Shadow, planning to make a joke about vultures, only to halt when he saw that said hedgehog was—for some reason—currently having a staring match with the female badger whose name was still escaping Sonic.

But, luckily, not to Jet. "Sticks, sit down. We've bought you a lunch as well," the hawk said, pushing the only not-yet opened pizza box towards the hedgehogs' side of the table as that was where the only remaining seat was—right between the two males.

But Sticks, instead of sitting down, brazenly pointed at Shadow and announced, "I don't trust this guy," her words emphasized by her grabbing on her boomerang and by her blue eyes firmly locking onto the ebony male.

While Storm ignored the comment and instead continued with wolfing down the food, Jet and Wave exchanged a glance, a heavy sigh leaving them both just a moment later. From such simple reaction it was obvious that the rogues had to dealt with similar situations way too often; and given the fact the Babylon Rogues clearly had known Sticks for barely three hours showed how difficult it must be to deal with the female.

If the experience was anything like a three-hour long date with Amy then Sonic had an idea how they were feeling.

_Time to help out a bit,_  he decided and turned to Sticks. "Yeah, he sometimes has that effect on people," he explained to the female and then turned to Shadow, playfully punching the ebony agent in the shoulder. "You need to smile more, Shads."

Unsurprisingly, the only reaction that earned him from Shadow was a mildly annoyed glance.

But Sonic did not let it affect him—that expression had been Shadow's default look for years now, he was immune to it already.

"You really don't have to worry about anything. He might seem like it but he really won't bite," he explained, flashing one of his trademark grins at Sticks to reassure her.

Somewhere in the back of Sonic's mind his inner voice laughed at the absurd statement.

"That's not the problem," Sticks argued, still not letting go of her boomerang as she still clearly deemed Shadow a threat for whatever reason. Most likely because of the way the agent was looking at her—it was quite clear he didn't like her either.

Sonic sighed. It seemed he needed to do a peacemaker today.  _Again_. "Alright, I see that neither of you guys is going to overcome the initial antipathies, so I'm going to solve this simply," Sonic commented and then slid across the bench to sit right beside Shadow and leave the other end of the bench to Sticks—and completely dismissing how Shadow's body jerked when their sides came into contact, thinking it was just the agent's natural way of reacting to his personal space being unexpectedly invaded.

"Here. Have seat." Sonic gestured to the space he had once occupied, still oblivious to how tense the hedgehog next to him suddenly looked.

The female let her gaze linger at the empty seat for a moment, and then, after giving another distrustful glance to Shadow, finally let go of her weapon and sat down to enjoy her mushroom pizza; though she still occasionally looked Shadow's way as if checking he was not doing anything.

The feather-covered Mobians on the other side of the table let out a relieved sigh and gave him a thankful look.

Sonic smiled in return and then focused his sight on the ebony agent, pondering what could be the reason why he and Sticks disliked each other right off the bat.

However, Shadow wasn't making it easy for him. The agent was just sitting there, face impassive, arms as usually crossed over his chest, though this time the fingers of his hand were visibly digging into his biceps in what Sonic supposed was irritation, the agent's eyes focused on some point ahead of him and not moving from the spot—not even to look at Sonic.

The hero absentmindedly rubbed his hand over the area where his hickey was positioned at the thought.

It was strange how distant Shadow continued to be. Before Sonic would never have considered this behavior strange as that was what Shadow normally did; keep people far both physically and emotionally by acting nonchalant and uninterested. But now when there was the 'desire serum' running through Shadow's veins, this behavior was no longer 'normal' when Sonic was involved in the equation. Shadow was interested in him—the agent's previous actions had proved that—and so far had used all opportunities to get physically close to him; no matter wherever it was socially appropriate or not.

The moment they had sat down to eat lunch Sonic had expected like—you know, Shadow trying some sneaky improper touching under the table like rubbing his thigh or something. Not  _this;_  Shadow behaving all normal, keeping his hands to himself and appearing irritated by his physical proximity like he usually did—even though just yesterday the agent was all for ignoring Sonic's personal space.

Of course, Shadow's behavior could easily be explained by that Shadow had simply decided to honor his wish for personal space. Though the hero had to admit that this scenario was very unlikely; the first time he had needed to  _bite_  Shadow to get the agent off him, the second time Rouge needed to get  _freaking_ robots for Shadow to give him a break, the third time it was the moment of confusion on Shadow's part that allowed him to flee the scene and the fourth time Sonic was sure it was only a mixture of surprise and the previously stated threat of being roundhouse kicked from the building if he tried anything when Amy was around to witness it.

It was clear that whatever kind of desire Shadow felt for him was strong; so strong that the agent's self-restraint and reason showed up only if he forced Shadow to remember such things existed; if he forced the agent to think again; if he was the one to cut through the cloud of lust that was enveloping Shadow's mind.

Only if he was the one to urge out the stoic and analytical part of Shadow that normally dominated Shadow's personality but which had been forced into background by the agent's lustful side.

But why had Shadow's libido suddenly stopped manifesting itself even though it clearly was still in charge? Why was Shadow no longer initiating any kind of physical contact? Why was he suddenly avoidant again?

The moment they had stepped out of the house Sonic had expected that Shadow would try something,  _anything_ , and so he made sure to watch Shadow the whole way. But Shadow had not tried a single thing. There were no attempts to kiss him or touch him, no pressing against a nearby tree or even a lustful gaze thrown from Shadow's direction.

At the moment he had assumed that it was simply due to Shadow realizing he wouldn't appreciate delay when they had been already in rush. But then Shadow's behavior continued to stay this way even thorough the day.

Sonic knew he should feel relieved thanks to this change of attitude—no matter the reason behind it—but instead it unsettled him; seeing Shadow acting the opposite way of what he had expected of him.

_Are you really complaining about Shadow_ _ **not**_ _molesting you?_  Sonic's inner voice suddenly sounded, interrupting his inner monologue, its tone questioning and full of pure disbelieving astonishment. _...You really need to set your priorities straight, man._

Sonic frowned at the remark. It was true that this reaction was irrational; heck, he should embrace the change and just roll with it. Maybe it was just a sign that Shadow's body was  _finally_ battling Eggman's serum.

—Or maybe the sudden chance was caused by the morning tweak of Shadow's brain chemistry. Instead of stimulating Shadow's libido and partly muting his speech-center, it was now completely focused on blocking the speech-making part of Shadow's brain...

He shook his head. Not that couldn't be it. Blocking Shadow's language capabilities could not have been Eggman's main goal when inventing the serum; the crazy scientist wanted Shadow to act on his deepest and darkest wishes so he surely had taken precautions that even if Shadow's body chemistry had changed due to natural factors—like getting worked up—the serum would still stay in effect.

Therefore, the only possibility that remained was that Shadow was still affected and just choose not to act on impulse like he had before.

Was it why Shadow suddenly seemed to be putting so much space between them? Was that why Shadow had chosen to sit on the opposite side of bench instead right next to him? To lower the temptation to just reach out and touch him?

Sonic's eyes slowly moved to gaze at the hedgehog sitting next to him—it had turned to the quiet bird duo during his musings—the agent now watching the passersby, Shadow's posture just as tense as minutes ago. The cobalt hero frowned; just when he thought that he was starting to figure out the enigma that was his rival, Shadow suddenly did something that threw him for a loop.

But why had Shadow stopped trying to pursue him? All of sudden? For no apparent reason? And, most importantly of all, why—?

_"All competitors, please, return to the starting area. The second round will begin shortly."_

—did he even mind it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter as I have unfortunate news for you.  
> This story is going on hiatus.  
> I thought I'll manage studying for finals and writing the story at the same time. But I simply don't have the energy and drive to do anything beside studying. So all of my efforts for next months will go into studying.  
> However, that does not mean I won't work on the story; if I'll have energy to spare, I'll try working on the story — just no updates will be happening in next few months. So, don't panic! I'll be back! I'll return even if they repeatedly try to to drag me away!  
> So, until then farewell, friends!  
> *dramatically leaves the scene*


	9. In Order to Win

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's here later than I said but I had a really hard time writing this chapter for some reason. However, I hope you'll still enjoy it!
> 
> Special thanks to HardSonadowFanGirl (from FF.net) for betaing this chapter.

An eerie, uneasy silence hung over the vast lair. There were no guard robots patrolling the corridors nor was there any other being disturbing the unnerving quietness that had settled over the building since its creator had retreated into the main laboratory in the depths of the great structure.

It had been many hours since that moment and the human was still leaned over his workbench, the metal surface covered by various papers full of chemical formulas and notes, glass and plastic bottles filled with chemical substances and compounds, tools and other kinds of equipment scattered among them. There was only a small table lamp illuminating the scientist's work, but the man seemed unconcerned by the inadequate lighting; he did not get up to find better source of light and just continued on mixing the various chemicals together, studying the products and murmuring under his breath, scribbling notes as he went along.

Orbot and Cubot both watched the show, not having anything else to do as their creator had not bothered to give them much instructions before he entered this strange hyper-trance. The doctor had not spoken a word to them for over twelve hours and had not moved from the bench at all in the time frame; which knowing human biology, both Orbot and Cubot knew was not healthy and definitely shouldn't be possible for the scientist.

They exchanged a glance, unsure whether they should alert their creator of this fact and then also possibly suggest him to get a bit of rest and sustenance that all organic beings needed. Tending to and moving the human would be much more difficult if he suddenly collapsed from not meeting his biological necessities than if they convinced him to meet them now.

But again there was still the possibility that any kind of interruption would make the human snap and finally carry out his threat of turning them into scrap metal...

"Eureka!" the human suddenly bellowed, both robots jerking in alarm at the sound, as the doctor triumphantly raised a gloved hand into the air, a vial full of bluish liquid held securely in his fingers. "The SWD-2 is finally complete! Now that damned rodent will finally get what he deserves..." Dr. Eggman began to chuckle, the sinister sound soon echoing through the room and replacing the unnerving silence with something even more disturbing.

The duo of robots exchanged a glance, neither of them sure what to expect to come out of this plan. It was true that none of Dr. Eggman's plans had been successful so far but they all were built on the same principle—to beat Sonic with sheer force and numbers. But this one was different; this time the doctor planned to turn Sonic's own ally against him and if he had not made that dosage miscalculation all these days ago, he would have surely succeeded in that already...

"Are you totally sure it won't kill the guy?" Cubot asked, breaking the scientist from his inner world and drawing the human's attention their way. "It doesn't seem like something you organic beings should be drinking."

"It truly is not," Dr. Eggman stated, lips curling as he looked back at the vial. "However, it would kill Shadow only if he'd been severely overdosed with it." The scientists turned to them. "Of course, I shall not risk something like that. This time the plan  _must_  succeed—now, when will  _they_  be here?"

Orbot cleared his non-existent throat, planning to answer the question, but by then a voice had already sounded.

"—How about now?"

In alarm, Dr. Eggman turned in the direction of the voice and watched as a purple figure emerged from the dark, the intruder flashing them all with a smile and bowing in a mock greeting. "Fang the Sniper at your service."

"How did you get past my security?" Dr. Eggman frowned, wrapping his hand protectively around the vial, brows furrowing when he noticed the Hooligan was alone. "And where are your colleagues?"

"First business—then questions," the weasel replied with a smirk as he walked over to him, tipping his hat more into his eyes, leaving only his fanged smile visible to the scientist before him, "I want to know if this deal is as good as your promised it to be, or if I'm just wasting my time here."

"It's even better than you expect," Dr. Eggman said as he sat the vial on the work-table, frowning when he saw how unabashedly was the mercenary eyeing his work.

"Lutropin? Scopolamine? Sildenafil?" Fang scowled as he read the labels on the various containers before him, grabbing the one that was nearest to him to smell the blue powder in it curiously. "Sounds like pretty nasty poisons to me..."

"Then you shouldn't be smelling them don't you think?" Dr. Eggman remarked with a frown as he pulled the box from the weasel's thievish hands. "You won't be using them anyway."

"Oh, really?" Fang crossed his arms over his chest. "Just for the record—because I heard what you have said earlier—you want to kill someone? We don't do that. Only robberies, smuggling and some of the other illegal stuff. Killing is too much hassle. Though for a generous sum, I suppose I could make an excep—"

"You won't need to kill anyone," the doctor interjects. "Actually, you will have to do barely _anything_." The mad scientist smirked. Fang raised a questioning brow. However, Dr. Eggman only gestured into the darkness of the lab. "Metal, come here."

Two shining red opticals appeared in the darkness of the room and Dr. Eggman could feel Fang shift beside him uncomfortably as the Sonic-look-alike slowly stepped into the light, a white Chaos Emerald held in his artificial hands.

"You will need this Chaos Emerald for your mission," Dr. Eggman explained as he took the pale gem from Metal Sonic's hands, the red opticals following his every move before settling on the mercenary, who immediately tried to make an inconspicuous step backwards and away from the deadly robot.

Dr. Eggman smiled, pleased. "Now, let me explain what exactly I want you mercenaries to do with it..."

O-o-O-o-O

"—and input a password of your choosin'—that will lock the capsule. It will unlock only after you input password again. As long as you keep yer password secret, no one else should be able to get the rings you deposit. Of course, we will provide full compensation if anythin' happens to yer capsules while yer competin'," Bunnie finished, tapping one of the ring boxes in which the racers were supposed to store all their rings for the following round; from the sounds of it there would be some kind of ring-collecting objective and therefore they weren't' allowed to carry any rings as it could affect the results. "Any questions?"

Sonic shook his head in denial, his gloved fingers tapped against the container thoughtfully, the hero trying to estimate how many rings he might have currently had. Keeping track of how many rings he collected as he blazed across Mobius' plains—either chasing after Eggman or just for the fun of it—wasn't really among his priorities so he didn't really keep count. However, he could feel there was quite a big amount of ring energy flowing thorough his body just waiting to be called on, so this would definitely require more than one or two boxes...

"If yer unsho' how many boxes you need," Bunnie's voice sounded again and Sonic looked up at the female again, "Ah may have a solution."

Then Bunnie gestured at the other member of the staff, a blond-haired coyote that Sonic had seen before the previous round calming down some of the racers that had freaked out upon seeing their roller-coaster of track. The male immediately scurried their way, Sonic just now noticing a name tag on his shirt that read 'Antoine' and that the male's hands were full of what appeared to be...digital watches?

"Thank you, sugar," Bunnie said, smiling as she took two of those 'watches' from her colleague, the coyote appearing a bit red in the face suddenly, a nervous smile on his face as he met her gaze.

_Somebody has a bit of a crush here,_  Sonic snickered mentally and reached forward to take the electronics the rabbit was now offering to him. He grasped the devices, each into one hand, studying both for a brief second curiously before handing one to Shadow and then focusing back on Bunnie, who was already demonstrating what the device—'ring-counter' she called it—could do, though personally Sonic believed the name was enough of explanation in itself.

Therefore, Sonic didn't hesitate to strap it onto his wrist, the device immediately activating. It took the gadget only a moment to determine the total amount of rings in his body and when it did, his eye-brows flew up on the number.

Alright, he'd had no idea that he was carrying  _this_  many.

"Um, it seems I'll need five of those boxes," Sonic stated, turning to his team-mate. "What about you, Shadow?"

Apart from him, Shadow only raised two fingers, clearly not in need of so many boxes.

"Alright, so five for me. Two for Shads. Seven in total then," Sonic said, smiling, as he turned back to Bunnie, who for some reason seemed a bit taken aback. The hero raised a questioning brow at the reaction. "Will it be a problem?"

The female seemed to finally snap out of her shock upon hearing his question. "No, of course not!" she said, waving her hands in a placating gesture. "Just, um, give me a minute to secure yer boxes." Bunnie then turned her back to them, walking a few paces away to talk to Antoine, who had already started to distribute the ring-counters to the other competitors.

They shared a few words in a hushed tone, Bunnie explaining the situation quickly, Antoine's eyebrows rising up in surprise.

"Five hundred rings?!" the coyote asked aloud, just a bit too loud not to not be heard, "who in zeir right mind carries five hundred rings on zem?!"

"Why shouldn't I?" Sonic called and shrugged his shoulders, drawing the coyote's attention this way. It wasn't like anyone could see how much money he carried on (or, well, technically speaking  _in_ ) himself; plus he would be  _very_  capable of defending himself from any kind of thief if anyone ever dared to try to mug him. Sonic grinned. "It's always better to have enough change on you, isn't it?"

The coyote starred at him in shock, with mouth gaping open. "But zat is—zat is—"

"You call five hundreds a 'change'?" Jet interjected as he approached them, an already filled ring-box under his arm. "I always suspected you made quite the money with all the 'saving the world' thing going on, though I didn't really expect you to turn out to be a millionaire."

"I'm no millionaire," Sonic shook his head. It was true that sometimes he got money as a reward for stopping Dr. Eggman's schemes or helping people in other ways but most of his income was really just from him collecting the rings that naturally appeared all across Mobius. "But I heard you Rogues made quite the money just recently. Something about finding Atlantis I believe...?"

"Oh, yes, Atlantis," the rogue smirked, "we made quite fortune with that. Nothing draws people like the idea of visiting place where no one has set their foot in thousands of years—"

Sonic grinned. "Five years."

"...What?" Jet furrowed his brows in confusion.

"I've been there five years ago." Sonic shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal. "Locals call it the Flicky Island. Quite a lovely place if you don't mind all the deadly traps that Eggman has left there."

"...really?" Jet stared at him in disbelief, which then slowly morphed into horror when he nodded. "I...I think I need to call a few people right now—Wave, Storm, get me a phone!"

The hero watched with silent amusement as the hawk scurried away to the other Rogues, looking very much like a panicked chicken with his feathers all ruffled up. It might be true that Dr. Eggman had left many deadly traps the Flicky Island, but all were broken beyond repair—he had made sure of that before leaving the island—no need for anyone to get hurt by accident.

Sonic sighed and diverged his attention from the bird trio, Wave now yelling at Jet and Storm for not checking the island more thoroughly—or something along those lines, it was hard to tell when he was this far—back to Antoine and Bunnie, only to find the mammal duo was no longer there and instead were right now helping a purple walrus to unload an utility cart that was standing just a couple of yards away.

There was a single giant ring box on the cart and Sonic immediately had a sneaking suspicion for whom it was intended.

O-o-O-o-O

"—and done!" Sonic announced with a grin, making a somersault down from the giant—honestly, the thing was the size of  _ _Big__ —capsule. Once back on his feet, he rolled his shoulders and swung his arms in a circle around him, stretching his stiff body and releasing the tension in his back.

He peered at the giant box over his shoulder. It was kinda over-kill as small boxes would have been enough, but apparently the head of the staff believed that if all of their seven hundreds rings were stored in one giant,  _ _heavy__ _ring_  box then there was a smaller chance of somebody trying—and  _ _managing__ —to steal it, which Sonic had to admit made sense.

The hero rubbed his neck, rolling his head a bit. After discarding all the rings, he somehow felt a bit light-ish now. Kinda weird considering it was supposed to be only energy and not mass he'd had to let go of...

_"_ __Attention, ladies and gentlemen. The second round is about to begin. All competitors, please, return to the start area immediately._ _ _"_

"Well, I guess that's our cue. We better go." Drooping his arm back to his side, Sonic smiled and outstretched his arm to take back his Extreme Gear. Shadow immediately handed him said item and they both fell into step, setting off in the direction of the racing track. "Oh, and our password is 'Chili dogs' by the way."

Shadow snorted in dry amusement at the choice.

"What?" Sonic cocked his brow, lips curling into an amused smirk. "You think you'd come up with something better? I haven't  _ _heard__ you say any suggestions."

The agent's lips pulled into a scowl at the remark. Sure, it was not Shadow's fault that he couldn't speak at the moment but Sonic just couldn't resist poking a bit of fun at the ebony agent because of this fact.

Shadow shook his head and sighed. Then—very much to Sonic's confusion—the agent made a weird hand motion that looked  _ _way__  too elaborate to not have meaning.

"Huh?" Sonic blinked, perplexed. "Come again?"

Shadow repeated the gesture; he balled his hand into a fist and raised it to an eye-level, then he outstretched both forefinger and his middle finger, and swept the digits from the bridge of his nose to its tip two times as if he were scratching it, his hand forming an 'O' shape the moment it lost contact with his face.

And even though the gesture had been performed much slower this time, Sonic still wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean.

Sonic raised a questioning brow. "...are you cussing me in a sign language?" Even the hero's second brow rose when he realized that was most likely what Shadow was doing. "Wait a minute, since  _ _when__  do you know a sign language?"

Shadow raised an eye-ridge, wordlessly asking him how he was supposed to do something like that when he clearly didn't understand a word he was signing.

Sonic's lips pressed into a thin line at the realization.  _ _Go figure, he'd have a skill like this and it still wouldn't help us communicate.__ Was this something all GUN agents knew?

You know, because not having to speak during stealth missions would definitely be quite useful...

Maybe he and Tails should learn a few signs as well; it could help them stay unnoticed while they sneaked around in Dr. Eggman's lairs...

"So, were you cussing at me or not?" Sonic asked again, eyes briefly darting to the area ahead of them where Bunnie and Antoine were already chasing the riders into their assigned starting positions before looking back at Shadow, who was still keeping silent. He nudged the other in the shoulder. "Come on! Tell me what you were saying! You can't leave me hanging like this!"

There was the typical amused 'you'd like to know that, wouldn't you?' expression on Shadow's face now, the agent still not offering any sort of explanation.

"...you're enjoying this, aren't you?" Sonic concluded, noticing from the corner of his eye how Bunnie was waving to them now and how the female gestured to the visibly empty spots among the other competitors.

A smirk was his only answer.

"You—" Sonic paused as he could feel a  _ _cold__ hand wrapping around his bicep, his eyes finding the female to which it belonged just a moment later.

"Sugar, yer gonna have to leave yer lovers' quarrel for after the race. Yer competin' now," Bunnie announced as she started to tug him away, her hold on his upper arm surprisingly strong for a person of her stature.

Sonic stumbled a bit, not quite expecting to be pulled away so suddenly—and with such force. Seriously, was Bunnie a cyborg in disguise or something? "Um, I guess we're gonna see each other later—see you at the finish line, Shad!" he shouted over his shoulder, not able to resist adding a bit of taunt at the end, "make sure to get there in time!"

However, before Sonic could receive an answer—surely in a form of another hand gesture, probably a bit more  _ _familiar__ one this time—he was already being dragged through a mass of people, which with their greater height—he sometimes really hated being so  _short_ —were blocking his view.

Bunnie pushed her way through the crowd until she reached an empty spot where she positioned him beside a certain familiar weary-looking, green-feathered hawk and then disappeared back into the crowd without another word.

"Sooo—" Sonic drew out, lightly jabbing the hawk in the side with his other hand to make Jet take notice of his presence, "crisis avoided?"

Frowning, Jet turned to look at him, clearly unhappy about being reminded of the issue again. "...Hopefully."

"It surely is." Sonic grinned, placing his Extreme Gear vertically against the ground and then leaning against the hover-board as he stood. "...Hey, Jet, do you know sign language by any chance?"

The Babylon Rogue looked a bit confused by the question for a moment. "...No. Why?"

"No reason."

Jet raised a brow but didn't question him further.

O-o-O-o-O

"I suggest you give up right now, Sonic!" Jet shouted over the screeching wind, his voice once again full of cockiness, the rush of adrenaline clearly helping him forget his fatigue for now. "You have no chance of beating me this round! Treasure collecting is in my  _ _blood__!"

The cobalt hero grinned. "And speed is in  _ _mine__ , pal! Don't ever forget that!"

And to underline his point, Sonic pushed his Extreme Gear to go faster, taking the first five rings for himself to the dismay of his green-feathered rival. The golden rings disappeared with their regular burst of sparkles, a rush of familiar energy entering Sonic's system and making the ring-counter on his wrist beep in acknowledgement of his success.

Frowning, Sonic shook his hand and then squeezed it, hoping it would remove the uncomfortable buzzing sensation that had come to life there after it had came in contact with the rings—Where the heck did it come from?—before taking a quick glance at the ring counter that was still strapped to his wrist, noting the big bold numerals that showed the number '50' at the moment; just like in the other teams, his and Shadow's ring-counters had been synchronized to show how many rings they currently had as a team instead of as individuals, as like this, they didn't need to stay together to know when to head for the finish line once they reached the one-hundred rings mark.

__Whoa, Shadow has already got 45 rings? Thirty seconds into the round? What is he? A magpie?__ Sonic questioned internally, at the same time spotting another quintet of golden rings that had just come to view, the hero making a sharp right turn to seize them.

"These are mine, hedgehog!" Jet shouted just as he managed to hit a speed dash and was propelled forward, getting just enough of boost to snatch them out of the hero's reach. "—told you!"

Sonic grinned. "Oh, I'm gonna get the next bunch! Just watch me!" Sonic replied with a smug smile to the hawk's own self-assured smirk, the hero aiming for another speed boost and successfully hitting it.

"You think I'll let you get them so easily?!" the hawk replied just as he caught up to him, the duo shoulder to shoulder once again, and both fueling more power into their gears to speed forward and be the first ones to grab the shiny collectibles. "No, way!"

Sonic grinned and made a sharp turn to the left, Jet reflexively slowing down to avoid collision and thus giving him the opportunity to put some distance between them.

The rogue gasped when he realized what he had tricked him into doing. "H-hey!"

"I'm gonna wait for you at the finish line, Jet!" Sonic mock-saluted as he made a sharp U-turn, diving into another path that presented itself. "Yahoo—!"

Jet scowled. "You won't beat me, Sonic the hedgehog!"

"Oh, really? I think we're doing pretty good so far!" Sonic shouted as he briefly raised his arm with the ring counter, while he outstretched the other and made another row of rings disappear in a flash of golden sparkles. "Eighty now! Woo hoo!"

Jet gasped. "Watch out!"

"Wha—?!" Sonic barely had the time to turn around at the warning, let alone dodge the female that was hurtling at him. Sticks, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, barreled into him at full force, and it was a miracle he somehow managed not to fall off his hover board—though there was this odd chime of something hitting the floor.

"Hey, Sonic, you seem to have you lost something!" Jet called from up ahead, the hawk once again getting the lead thanks to their accident.

Confused, Sonic looked behind himself. There was a group of ten rings—which had definitely not been there when he passed that section—floating in a circle formation right above the track—

Oh.

__Oh._ _

He glanced on the ring counter on his wrist to confirm his discovery. So that's what Bunnie meant that they might not keep the collected rings until the end of the race—and that's also why he'd had that odd buzzing sensation; the rings were purposefully over-charged with energy and couldn't be absorbed properly and the slightest tap to the holder's body would send them flying.

__Shoot.__ He'd always been terrible at holding on to over-charged rings. Hopefully, Shadow would do better; the agent was an expert at controlling chaos energy, so he'd surely managed even ring energy better than he could.

"See?! I told you this evil thing is gonna try to kill us all!" Sticks roughly stamped on her hover-board, pointing an accusing finger on the vehicle, and then turning to looking at them, "We need to perform a ritual of purification on this thing! We need to head back and—" Sticks turned around to point behind her, her eyes going wide at the sight of the rings, "—oh,  _ _shiny__!"

Sonic watched in a mixture of amusement and bewilderment as the female apparently all forgot about her 'evil' Gear and instead dashed to collect the shining rings, the scene oddly reminding Sonic of a certain human movie trilogy about dwarves, elves and by-evil-possessed rings he had seen couple off years ago.

__Well, I guess I can leave those rings to her. She seems happy to have them.__ Sonic grinned as he turned around and began the pursuit of his rival, who had gotten already quite the distance between them thanks to his short moment of idleness.

"Hey, Jet!"

"How are you back already?!" Jet questioned as he glanced over his shoulder, the hawk not daring to slow down even a bit, determined not to lose his advantage once he finally had it.

"I'm the fastest thing alive! Nobody leaves me in the dust!"

"Oh, yeah? Watch me!"

Jet angled his body, lowering his center of gravity and pushing his heel onto the sensor fully to make the Gear to work at its maximum capacity.

Seeing this, Sonic immediately copied him, knowing that in order to overtake Jet and thus also have a chance to get his hands on the scattered rings—it seemed they had picked a route with minimal amount of rings, unfortunately—he now needed to do everything flawlessly and as efficiently as possible.

"What do you say about another bet, Jet?" Sonic questioned as he diminished the distance just a bit more. "You can pick the reward this time."

"Why so eager?" Jet's sky blue eyes peered at him through his racing goggles. "You want to lose again?"

"Nah, I don't feel like losing to Wave again." Sonic's lips pulled into an amused smirk when he saw the corner of Jet's mouth twitch at the remark. "I'd rather win this time. You surely would too. So what do you say? Let's bet again?"

"Well, I—"

A loud pitched sound interrupted Jet before he could finish, the ring-counter on Sonic's wrist now flashing the number '100' in big bold red letters.

A wide smile broke out at Sonic's face. Shadow did it! "Hell, yeah!"

"Are you—?!"

"Well, I guess this settles it. Let's leave the bet to another round!" The hero sharply turned around, to follow the big red arrows that were there to point them in the correct direction of the finish line. "See ya later, Jet!"

"Hey—!"

Sonic grinned as he dashed forward, keeping an eye out for extra rings and throwing occasional glances at the ring-counter to assure Shadow had not lost any rings so far. It could get problematic if Shadow did, as Sonic himself had no rings at all as his collision with Sticks had knocked them all out of him. And it was quite the crash; his shoulder still ached from the impact.

With lips pressing into a thin line, he glanced over the length of the racing track. For some reason there were no rings on this route either.

__Well, I guess that's just my luck today.__ Sonic sighed.  _ _First, Amy and Shadow start a fight, then Sticks almost breaks my shoulder and now__ _ _ **this**__ _ _.__

Sonic sighed again.

Today just  _ _wasn't__ his day.

O-o-O-o-O

"Do you need anything, sweetheart?"

"N-no, Mrs. Vanilla." Amy shook her head, forcing a smile on her face, and tightening the hold on the cup of warm cocoa in her grasp to hide how much her hands were still shaking. "Thank you."

"No problem." Vanilla straightened her back, smiling softly as she smoothened the fabric of her skirt. "Call me if you need anything."

"S-sure." The pinkette nodded and the diverted her gaze back to the mug in her hands, taking a small sip of the hot beverage before adjusting the blanket around her shaking form more securely. There was the soft clap of Vanilla's shoes against the wooden tiles, the female leaving the room to return to the kitchen where she was currently preparing the lunch.

Amy sighed, her breath blowing away the gentle vapor that was rising from the cup. She stared at the swirling liquid for a moment before she took a hold of the spoon and fished out one of the tiny marshmallows Vanilla had added into the cocoa. She brought the spoon to her lips, tasting the sugary treat in order to distract herself.

However, even the sweetness didn't help to stop her mind from wandering back to _that_ moment. As she had been lying on the ground and her own hammer had been being brought down on her. She had felt just so  _terrified_  at that very moment. She was no stranger to a battle—being close to Sonic meant getting into trouble quite often—but back there...

A violent tremble racked her form and she did not even try to hide it.

She had truly felt as if she was about to die. It had...it had almost felt as if Shadow had wanted to  _kill_  her.

The thought was ridiculous really; there was no bad blood between them, they spoke only couple of times and Shadow had no real reason to want to hurt her. But back then...

She shook hear head to chase the thought away.

Sonic had said Shadow was not really himself at the moment and that he needed to keep an eye on him. She now understood why. Whatever Dr. Eggman did to Shadow, had made the agent dangerous. Sonic just didn't want to worry her and so he had lied about the gravity of the situation.

She would bet that the bruise on Sonic's neck was actually no accident at all either.

Fawn lips pressed into an unhappy frown. Oh, how she hated when Sonic did that.

Sonic always tried to deal with things on his own, be it a horde of Dr. Eggman's robots or just struggling through illness; the hero was always eager to give help but was reluctant to accept help himself—it took her years to make him stop from trying to persuade her to keep out of the battlefield. She belonged there too. Because how could she just stand on the sidelines when her boyfriend was out there fighting for the fate of the world?

...her boyfriend...

She was still confused by Sonic's morning outburst. What had happened? Had she done something to make him angry that he started denying their relationship? Sure, they had only went on three dates so far but they spent a lot of time together! Sonic even looked after her when she was sick! He might not admit his feelings aloud but his actions spoke for him. Other than a boyfriend, no else would do all that!

She nodded. Sonic surely had not meant it. He had been probably just worn out from having to look after Shadow for who knows how long. He was surely going to apologize when they saw each other again.

She let the spoon slip back into the cup so she'd have a free hand to reach into her pocket and check the love potion was still there. She took the small flask out, staring at if for a moment. She had intended to use it yesterday, but Shadow had interrupted her before she could have added it into Sonic's food.

She had hoped that the potion could finally help him overcome his nervosity and help him freely express his feelings towards her; Sonic was an affectionate person by nature, but when it came to her, he sometimes tended to be unnecessarily shy. She had just wanted to help him a bit with the potion.

Sure, when they see each other again, she might not need it as Sonic might finally surpass whatever is stopping him from openly declaring his love for her. Nevertheless, she was going to keep it.

Just in case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Reviews are highly appreciated!


	10. High In the Clouds

_First place! Yes!_  Sonic grinned and pumped his fist.  _Just two more rounds and we'll have the Emerald..._

A bit reluctantly the hero tore his gaze from the board, ignoring his curiosity about at what place would the Babylon Rogues manage to seize—names were quickly filling the ranking ladder but so far he had not seen any of theirs—in the favor of searching for his teammate in the midst of spectators, staff members and other competitors that had already finished the round.

It took him a moment but, in the end, he managed to spot the black and red form of his teammate at the right edge of the crowd. The agent was turning and looking around as if here were searching for something or someone—possibly him?—and so Sonic raised his arms and started to wave at the agent to get his attention, a soft smile on his face. "Hey, Sha—!"

Suddenly, there was a flash of white and it were only Sonic's quick reflexes that made him stop before he could have collided with the person that had so suddenly blocked his way.

His gaze flickered over the person's form, quickly taking in the stranger's overall appearance; a female white rabbit around his age, dressed in teal and red outfit, lying on and riding an orange hover-board that awfully reminded him of carrots. That was all his mind supplied before stating a different fact—that it did not recognize the female and thus had absolutely no idea who the girl was supposed to be or what her possible business with him might be.

"Hey, say, do you wanna play~?" the unfamiliar female sing-songed in a soft, child-like voice as she rolled from her side onto her back. Her head was lolling over the edge of the Extreme Gear in this new position and her long white ears adorned by ribbons were almost touching the ground now. But she hardly seemed bothered by the change. She stared at him with big, unfocused eyes, looking a bit dazed and, he dared to say,  _high_.

_She looks like Tails that one time we accidentally picked the wrong mushrooms for dinner,_ Sonic commented internally as he observed the unfamiliar female, pondering whether he should wait until her teammate came to pick her up or go search for them instead—or get some staff member to at least contact them. He supposed they'd like to know she was flying  _in the clouds_  in more ways than one...

"Hey, hey, do you wanna  _play_ , or not? " she asked again, giving him a look that he guessed was supposed to be flirty, but was just a tad too drunk-like to look appealing. Plus she heavily reminded him of Cream, so... _no_. "It's gonna be fun~"

The female outstretched her arm to reach for him but Sonic did a quick step back to avoid it; he had his fair share of experience with overly touchy-feely fans and he knew that once they took hold, it was quite hard to make them let go.

Therefore, he chose to put even more space in between himself and the stranger, making another small step back to gain even more distance as he answered, "I don't feel like playing around."

"Oh?  _Hee hee—_ Truly?" a new slightly gruff voice asked in an amused tone, the unexpected entrance making Sonic turn his head around in alarm. This time he was met with a sight of a blue-furred wolf—a stranger just like the rabbit.  _Maybe they are a team...?_ The guy tilted his head, on his face a wide wicked grin that matched the constant stream of giggles that seemed to rack his form. "And yet _, hoo hoo_ , you've got a  _hickey_.  _Ha ha._ "

Sonic furrowed his brows in confusion.  _How does he—?_  The cobalt hero quickly reached to feel his neck, horror washing over him when he couldn't feel the rough fabric of his neckerchief there. How long had he been running around without it? Had anyone else noticed?!

Sonic cursed internally. Today  _really_  wasn't his day.

"—maybe you'd,  _hee hee_ , want  _another_?"

Sonic blinked, his momentary panic attack coming to halt.  _Alright, that's not an offer I've ever received before..._ "...Excuse me?" he voiced as he turned fully to the wolf, his gloved hand remaining on his neck to hide the dark love-bite.

"See, Falkie? He doesn't want a hickey!" the rabbit girl piped up from behind him. "I told ya! They're icky!" she declared before promptly breaking into a loud laughing fit.

"You can't,  _ha ha_ , know that, Carrie," the wolf immediately shot back, a small frown finding its way to his face. Though it almost immediately turned back into a crazy grin when he turned to him again. "So, do you,  _hoo hoo_ , want one?"

The cobalt hero glanced between 'Falkie' and 'Carrie' uncertainly. If he should judge by the giggling and downright inappropriateness, he'd say not only 'Carrie' was a bit  _intoxicated_  here...

Huh, what were the odds he would run into a duo of a giggling stoner buddies today of all days?

"You see, guys, I'm not really interested in doing  _anything_  with either of you," he said, knowing from his experience with shroom-ed Tails that beating around the bush was pointless—he needed to get his point across and dancing around would only make things more difficult in this case. He turned his body to leave to give his words even more emphasis. "So, I'm gonna excuse myself now."

"Aw, Falkie, because of you, he doesn't want to play with me either now!" the rabbit complained, whining like a small kid as she watched him leave; Sonic wouldn't be surprised if he turned around and saw her hit her companion with her fists like a child when throwing a temper tantrum. "Stupid wolf."

However, the wolf didn't seem to accept the rejection as easily as her. "Hey,  _hoo hoo_! Don't go so fast!" As before the cobalt hero could have made even three steps away, there was a blue and yellow gloved hand curling around his bicep to turn him back around. "I mean—! We haven't even,  _hee hee_ , agreed if your place or mine?"

Sonic scowled. Was the other thick-headed or just refusing to accept the fact he'd been turned down?

The hero turned his head around, his tone gaining a bit of a vexed edge as he spoke. "Dude, I'm serious. I'm  _not_ interested. I'd appreciate if you left me alone," he said as he glanced at the transgressing hand still curled around his arm before giving the wolf a pointed look, voicelessly commanding the other to let him go.

However, instead of releasing his arm, the stranger tugged him  _closer_ , the motion forcing Sonic to turn around  _fully_  and face the other, who immediately leaned in, making their faces come uncomfortably—and, in view of societal norms, also _inappropriately_ —close, so close that Sonic in fact could feel the other's breath washing over his own face, his lips pulling into a scowl and face scrunching up in displeasure at the sudden uncalled-for closeness.

"I think we should go to my place,  _hee hee_ ," the guy continued, shamelessly ignoring what Sonic had said, while at the same time moving his other hand onto Sonic's side, the cobalt hero tensing at the unexpected and mostly  _uncalled-for_  contact. Sonic's scowl deepened. The guy was really  _pushing_  it now.

"We'll be back before the next round,  _ha ha,_  rolls around."

"I'm _not_  interested," Sonic hissed through gritted teeth and tore his arm from the other's hold. Then, because his other hand was still full of his EG, used the freed arm to smack away the hand on his side—not with enough force to leave a mark but enough to make the wolf  _feel_  it. He wanted to be nice, but the guy was really testing his (quickly thinning) patience. "Try elsewhere."

He stared the wolf down for a moment, wanting the other to realize he was serious. When the wolf didn't respond anyhow or didn't try any other moves, Sonic judged his message had finally gotten across and so he slowly turned around to leave. When even then nothing happened, he turned around fully and stepped forward, ready to leave the scene.

Somehow he did not expect that at that very moment a very resounding slap would land on his  _ass_ —followed by a burst of laugh from the rabbit girl, the intoxicated female clearly finding the action hilarious.

However, Sonic did  _not_. Quills flaring in ire, the cobalt hero whipped around and got in the guy's face faster than an eye could blink. "What the heck's your problem, dude?!"

"You're feisty, _hee hee_." The wolf leaned in, once again ignoring his remark, giving him a wicked grin and a suggestive eye-brow wiggle, something maniac flashing in his eyes. "I like that."

Then, not too much of Sonic's surprise this time, the wolf tried to grope him once again, this time aiming for the life side of his bottom. But because he was expecting it this time, Sonic quickly sidestepped and smacked the hand away before it could make contact. He didn't appreciate the guys advances.  _At all_.

"But I don't like your attitude—clearly we have a problem."

Seriously, why the heck were there so many people trying to fondle him these days? Did the Universe declare Everyone-let's-grope-Sonic week or something?

"I'm sure I can fix that,  _ha ha._ " The wolf's tone was smug and it grated at Sonic's nerves, making his quills bristle even more; it was apparent the guy truly believed that being an insolent, persistent douche-bag would somehow lure him in. As if.

"—I'm a quite likable guy once you,  _hee hee_ , get to know me."

"I doubt that."

"How so?" The wolf giggled, raising an amused brow. Sonic frowned. The guy was  _really_  full of himself.

"I'd hardly want to spend time on getting know a person who gropes me two minutes after meeting me."

The wolf smirked wickedly. "Give it a time and you'll find my straight-forward ways appealing.  _Hee hee_."

Sonic had to bite down on his tongue to stop himself from responding with 'Pal, I already had a drugged guy trying to get me to sleep with him by being straight-forward but even he had the common decency to  _not_  go for my ass right away,' and instead reply just with, "I find the idea of my shoe meeting your face very  _appealing_  at the moment."

"Are you sure you wanna risk something like that?  _Ha ha_.  _People are watching._ " The wolf guy gave a sideway glance to the audience they had already gained since their short spat started before refocusing back at him. "Surely the _hero_ —" The wolf stepped forward, his tone enunciating the 'hero' part with too much of emphasis for it to not bet meant as a mocking. _"—_ doesn't want any,  _hee hee_ ,  _bad publicity_."

Sonic frowned. It was true that attacking the guy—no matter how justified by offense committed on his person—would end up bad for him. His battle prowess was well-known among people and the journalists—which considering this event surely were lurking around, hiding among the people—would take up the opportunity to twist the story around—scandals sold.

Plus the tournament was still in progress—and he was sure there were rules that forbid contestants from attacking one another with disqualification as a penalty.

He hated it but the wolf was right about this one.

From the corner of his eye, Sonic could see a figure slowly approach them and a smile found its way to the hero's face. "Well, if people know it was because you  _molested_  me, then I'm sure they won't particularly care how  _defenseless_ you might seem. They'll probably even praise me for it."

The canine Mobian smirked amusedly, once again stepping forward to invade his bubble of personal space,  _leering_  at him with his big blue, crazy-looking eyes.

"Why aren't you,  _hee hee_ , throwing a punch already then?" the wolf asked, the wolf's smug smirk wordlessly telling him the guy believed he was just bluffing, and this fact was even more reinforced when the guy's hand grabbed his behind and _squeezed_. But this time, Sonic instead of immediately batting the hand away—and possible clocking the wolf in the muzzle atop of it—choose to swallow his revolt for the time being and do nothing, letting the wolf under the impression that he'd truly been only bluffing—because Sonic  _didn't_  have to swing at this guy and thus put his reputation into a peril for the wolf to get his lesson, and that was the  _fun_  part about this.

Apart from him, Shadow had  _never_ particularly cared what kind of reputation he had with people.

With a grin on his face, the cobalt hero boldly leaned in, the action clearly surprising the wolf. "I  _would_ —if I wasn't so damn curious to find out what will my _partner_  do once he gets here." Sonic  _very_  enjoyed the ambiguity of the phrase in the context with the tournament—and the way the wolf's manic grin seemed to fade almost immediately upon hearing this.

"What? Your partner—?" the wolf's question remained unfinished, even the constant stream of giggles seemed to get lodged in his throat when Shadow suddenly materialized next to him—or that's at least how it appeared to everyone whose eyes weren't used to watching things move at supersonic speeds—and then hauled him off the ground, holding him in the air by his blue chest-fur alone.

Howling out in pain, the wolf immediately grabbed onto the red-cuffed hand, unsuccessfully trying to pry the fist open before actually looking at the assailant, freezing in terror when saw with how heated glare he was being regarded with; Shadow had a royally pissed expression on his face and there was chaos energy crackling around his body ominously—he looked absolutely  _murderous_ and Sonic wouldn't be surprised if murder was what was at his mind at this very moment. If he squinted enough, the wolf's chest fur actually seemed to be a bit singed already because of the agent's rampant chaos energy.

Crimson eyes narrowed as they burned holes into their terrified blue counterparts. " _You._.." Shadow hissed through gritted teeth, the mono-syllable word holding so much hostility that it made chill run up Sonic's spine.

_You are a dead man_ , it said.

And the wolf _felt_  it too, panicked words falling from his mouth barely a moment later. "I-I'm so-sorry I, _hoo_ —I didn't meant to—"

At the sound of the wolf's shaky voice, the rabbit female finally seemed to snap from her dreamy stupor, her face twisting in worry about her friend's life.

"Falkie!" she shouted, rolling from her hover-board to get up and save her teammate. However, she froze mid-motion when she Shadow shot her a glare, wordlessly telling her she better not intervene in any way if she wished to walk unscathed out of this. Though that did not apply only to her, Sonic was sure that anyone who'd try to step in right now was more likely to get a chaos spear to their face than successfully break up the impending fight.

Sonic frowned. Even though the idea of the wolf getting punched seemed very appealing to him, he knew _he_  would have to be the fool that steps in as he simply couldn't let Shadow throw chaos spears around or beat the wolf for his insolence; they _needed_  to get the Emerald and that required them to stay in the competition.

And so Sonic made a step forward, reaching out to lay a calming hand on the agent's shoulder and tell the other he'd done enough. "Sha—"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Surprised by the sudden interruption, Sonic turned to stare in the direction of the new voice, watching as the speaker—a big brown Mobian grizzly bear that had the same intimidating aura of power and anger like Knuckles on one of his  _worse_  days—approached them and came to stand before Shadow. Fury flashed in the blood-red eyes of the bear as he regarded the agent with a heated glare, Shadow returning the gaze with the same amount of force.

For a moment, the two only stared each other down, but then the bear clearly lost his patience; he cracked his knuckles menacingly, growling in a deep rough voice, "So? Are you gonna let him go? Or do I need to smash your face in first, _punk_?"

_Uh-oh, this doesn't seem good._  Apprehension shot through Sonic as he observed the angry duo. The tension between them was almost  _tangible_ ; he needed to break this up before either of them snapped.

But just as Sonic was about to step in and do a peacemaker, the last person he would have expected it from at this moment, suddenly  _dove_ in between the two parties, the rabbit raising her hands in a placating gesture, her dreamy grin for once replaced by an uneasy grimace.

"Don't be mad, Barry! Falkie was being bad and started it, Barry!" she explained as she lay a hand on the bear's chest in a clear attempt to placate him. However, the touch did nothing to soothe the bear. "But he's gonna apologize! Right, Falkie?"

The wolf immediately piped up at her words. "I'm sorry!" he uttered, shoulders shaking as he tried to choke back the giggles that were threating to escape—even he realized, laughing right now would only get him into a deeper trouble.

'Barry' looked at 'Carrie', his balled fists tensing and relaxing repeatedly as he mulled over her words in his head. Then, after along moment, he finally gave a curt nod and turned back to them, crossing his arms over his chest, the hostility not leaving his expression just yet but giving them an opportunity to cooperate.

The rabbit looked at Shadow, looking nervous and unsure what to do to make  _him_  calm down, and so instead of attempting anything she just glanced at Sonic, quietly asking the hero for help.

Seeing this was a chance to stop the fight before any bloodshed or disqualifications might happen, Sonic of course chose to help. "Shadow?" he questioned quietly, laying a hand on the agitated agent's shoulder to calm him down and urge Shadow to look at him.

And the ebony hedgehog truly turned his head to look at him, lips pressed into a thin line and brows furrowed over crimson eyes that flashed with desire to hurt and punish. The expression alone was enough for Sonic to know that all Shadow wanted at the moment was to beat the life out of the wolf.

But Sonic held his ground, knowing that at this very moment he needed to be the voice of reason here when Shadow's own was temporarily out of commission. They held an eye-contact and, after a _long_  while, Shadow finally gave in, the agent giving a mixture of sigh and an unhappy grumble before very much  _throwing_ the wolf at the bear.

Luckily for the wolf, 'Barry' managed to caught the flying canine without much trouble.

Once back on his feet, the wolf awkwardly cleared his throat, glancing at them before pointing his gaze at his ruffled chest fur, obviously trying avoiding looking in their direction. The wolf was hunched, shoulders were drawn up as if he were trying to hide behind them, his tail now quite literally tucked between the wolf's legs.

Sonic blinked in surprised at the sudden one-eighty.  _Shadow has really done a number on you, hasn't he?_

"Well, I've, clearly over-stepped,  _ha_ —" The wolf barely stopped the giggle from escaping. "—some boundaries. I'm sorry. We won't bother you anymore."

The wolf awkwardly cleared his throat again and after muttering something to his comrades, the trio quickly departed on their respective EGs, the bear throwing them a scorching look before the trio disappeared among the food stalls—and from the corner of his eye, Sonic could see Shadow signing something after the trio in return and this time he was one-hundred percent sure it was an insult.

Seeing it was only the two of them again, Sonic gave a light-hearted chuckle to elevate the tense atmosphere that was left. "Well, I would have handled it on my own, but still... _thanks._ " He gave Shadow a pat on the shoulder and even a small smile when the agent turned around. It was true that Shadow's involvement wasn't really necessary, if things got out of hand (or well some hands got where they  _weren't_  supposed to), he would have just left the scene.

Though it definitely felt nice having someone stand up for him in situations like these.

"Hey, wait up!"

The duo turned at the familiar voice and they were met with the sight of grinning Jet and Wave riding towards them at their Extreme Gear, Storm and smug-looking Sticks right at their tails. From the looks of it, this round was a success for everybody.

The Babylon Rogues hopped down from their EG and jogged the rest of the way to them, hover-boards held under an arm. Once close enough, Jet outstretched his arm, a brown cloth resting on his palm. "I think you've lost something, Sonic."

_The neckerchief—!_ Abruptly, Sonic covered the dark mark on his neck with his hand before any of the Rogues could notice it, his cheeks getting a tinge of pink and his free hand quickly shooting up to take back the scarf. "Oh, yeah, thanks." He hastily tied the cloth around his neck, pretending to be oblivious to the odd looks he was regard with for it.

"Um, I don't want to stir up anything but..." Jet cleared his throat. "What exactly happened back there? It seemed rather wild from far."

Sonic shrugged his shoulders as he adjusted his neckerchief, test-tugging at it to ensure it wouldn't fall off again. "Some guy just didn't want to understand I wasn't interested in sleeping with him."

"I...see," It was apparent from Jet's expression that hawk had not expected  _this_ to be the answer to his question.

"Do you know anything about them?" Sonic inquired, curious if the Babylon Rogues had any history with the weird trio.

"They call themselves 'Witchcarters'—they're newcomers. They rank high but they lack the experience to win." Wave gestured to the score-board. "That's also probably why they tried to sabotage you."

Sonic blinked owlishly at the remark. "Sabotage me?" As far as he knew, the Witchcarters hadn't tried to mess with his EG...

"Having a cold head while racing is important, I'm sure they only bothered you to work you up so you'd be more prone to making mistakes in the following rounds," Wave explained as she set her hover-board onto the ground, checking for any damages as she spoke. "Probably why they picked a _guy_ to flirt with you too."

Sonic grinned. "Trust me, the fact he's guy will hardly bother me. I've already had my fair share of guys trying to hit on me." And not just Shadow. Considering he'd never had an actual relationship, public had no idea what his sexuality was, so there was quite a number of both male and female admirers, who had already tried to their luck with him. "Do you know anything more about these 'Witchcarters'?"

"Not really."

"Hmm," Sonic hummed, mulling over the new information before playfully nudging Jet. "Well, watch out, Jet, then. If they're targeting favorites, they're probably gonna go after you next."

Jet smirked. "I think I'll manage."

"Are you sure?" Sonic teased. "You know, I think you'd get pretty along with the rabbit girl. Her ego is always in the clouds as well."

Jet frowned at the remark. "You're one to talk."

Sonic grinned. "Quite an amazing feat for someone who can't fly, isn't it?"

O-o-O-o-O

"The deal was clear, you didn't keep to your end of bargain."

"We didn't keep to our end of bargain?! We distracted him for long enough for you to do whatever it was you wanted with the other guy, you punks are the ones who messed up here!"

" _Us_? The deal was that you  _distract Sonic_ , not attract attention of everybody around!"

"We still gave you enough time to deal with the other guy, it's only your fault you wasted the opportunity and let him get away. Now give us the information— _or else_."

"No."

" _You—_ "

"Remember that without us you'll never find it. Try again and the information is yours—regardless of the outcome this time."

"Hmpf... _Fine_  then."

" _Marvelous._ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-09]


	11. Hide-and-Seek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Guess who's back~!
> 
> I apologize for the late update, which is half-caused by my poor time&energy-management skills and half by the fact I've recently started university! So, yeah...unfortunately, I don't know how often I'll have a chance to update in a near future as I have absolutely no idea how much time (and especially energy) I'll have for writing now with school back in the picture. It's just been six weeks since I started and I already feel overwhelmed...
> 
> Thanks to all of you who have showed your support! It makes me happy to hear people are still enjoying my story! (Let's all hope the next update is not going to take as long as this one...)
> 
> Now on with the story!

_Have I just lost him again?_  Raising an incredulous brow, Sonic took another thorough look around the finish area, but yet again didn't spot a single black spine of his teammate—whom he was  _one-hundred_  percent sure had been standing there half a minute ago right before he had been distracted by a group of fans that had wanted to take a photo with him.

Heavens, what was up with Shadow and disappearing the moment he wasn't looking?

A frown marred Sonic's face as he began to jog along the plaza in a search of Shadow, hoping to spot the agent somewhere in the crowd or at one of the numerous food-stands. However, when he came full circle without seeing Shadow once, he concluded the agent truly was no longer in the area.

Glancing over the area aimlessly one more time, Sonic rubbed his neck. Should he be worried about where Shadow might have wandered off to? Should he ask around if somebody hadn't seen him?

_Hi, sorry to bother you but I'm looking for someone. He's a black hedgehog about the same height as me. He's over fifty years old but looks twenty. He's very quiet and kinda out of his mind at the moment. Oh, and he likes guns. Did you happen to see anybody fitting this description by any chance?_

He shook his head. That  _definitely_  wasn't a good way how to approach the situation. Letting out a heavy sigh, he let his arm droop back to his side. He knew there really wasn't a reason to worry as even in his current state Shadow was still capable of looking after himself for the most part—but Sonic just couldn't suppress the uneasiness the lack of information about Shadow's whereabouts brought.

No matter the fact it was for the second time today he had been put into a such position.

When Shadow had disappeared the first time—while he himself had chatted with the Babylon Rogues on the previous break—Sonic had believed Shadow might have just wandered off to find a restroom or get a snack. However, now he was starting to get the impression that there might be something else at play here.

Maybe was Shadow just trying to avoid the big crowd? Shadow had never been a people person so that could be it.

Though...Shadow didn't seem to have this problem with crowds until now. Maybe he was trying to avoid something else? Or someone else? Was he trying to avoid...him?

Sonic blinked at the sudden thought.

After all, wasn't that what Shadow had been trying to inconspicuously do at lunch? Avoid contact with him? Except now instead of it being only physical contact, it was all contact in general?

_But why?_  He furrowed his brows in thought. Sure, during lunch, Shadow had seemed a bit uncomfortable, but later, when they were preparing themselves for the second round (and weren't in such a close proximity of one another) Shadow had seemed to be pretty comfortable again—the whole teasing him in a sign-language and all.

So what changed?

Sonic scratched his head, trying to figure out what could have triggered this sudden change of behavior. The Witchcarters encounter maybe? It was the only major event that came to his mind and it had been  _right after_ that that Shadow started to distance himself again...

Peach lips pulled into a frown.  _I'd expect him to be more reluctant to leave me alone after that, not the other way around..._  After all, wouldn't it make sense for Shadow to start being more  _protective_  of him after such incident? Amy would always become 'protective' of him for couple of hours anytime she witnessed some girl paying him  _excessive attention_ , (though Amy's definition of 'excessive' was considerably different from that of other's people,) so he'd expect Shadow to behave in a similar way.

_Who says he isn't? Maybe he's currently tracking Falke down and planning how to get rid of him without anyone noticing..._  a voice in his mind added unhelpfully, the remark only deepening Sonic's scowl instead of erasing it as the idea wasn't completely absurd; Shadow had showed himself to be a vengeful person and with the serum amplifying his emotions...

Sonic shook his head to get rid of the thought. No, even in his current state, Shadow surely wouldn't do something so _drastic_  because of some groping...

_We're talking about a guy who almost_ _ **obliterated**_ _planet with a space cannon_ , his inner voice intervened once again.  _Sensible reactions is not something you should expect from him,_ _ **especially**_ _not in his current state._

_I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt for now,_  Sonic shot back to silence the voice, wanting to believe that Shadow truly wasn't somewhere out there plotting murder. After all, everyone should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, right?

And as far as he knew, the Witchcarters hadn't even finished this round yet. That of course left him some time to still find Shadow and what he was up to—and maybe get a  _snack_  if he had the time...

O-o-O-o-O

_Note to self: Never play hide-and-seek with Shadow, he's apparently an expert at it,_  Sonic commented internally, sighing in frustration; the break was almost over and he hadn't seen even a glimpse of Shadow even though he'd criss-cross searched the whole tournament area three times already.

_Why are you so determined to not be found, Shad?_  Sonic sighed as he looked around once more—in vain, unsurprisingly.

Concluding he was not speaking to Shadow until the agent came out of hiding on his own like last time, Sonic sighed once more and set off in the direction of the starting line, hoping Shadow would return at least for the final round; opposite would mean their disqualification and him having to negotiate for the Emerald with whoever would win—which hopefully would be some of the Babylon Rogues as they were usually willing to trade Chaos Emeralds as long as money or something of considerable value was offered in return.

_He's not here yet,_  Sonic mused internally once he reached the starting area, the vast space looking somehow empty now when only fifty people remained in the competition—though the lack of people definitely helped with searching the crowd for Shadow.

Sonic's lips pressed into a thin line as he noticed that even though Shadow wasn't there, there were other people he knew— _unfortunately_ —and they seemed to be in a fairly good shape—as much as once can be after a day full of racing on Extreme Gear.

_Well, I guess Shadow has just been proven innocent,_  the hero remarked internally as he started to make his way over to another familiar face—Sticks was standing at the very edge of the crowd, which meant that the Babylon Rogues had to be somewhere nearby too; the final round was about to start after all.

The female had her back to him when he reached her and not wanting to scare her, Sonic first cleared his throat before greeting her. "Hi, Sticks."

Letting out a sound similar to that of angry cat, Sticks immediately whipped around to face him with bared teeth, her arm curling behind her back to reach for her trusty boomerang. However, when she noticed it was just him, she immediately stopped snarling and even let go of her weapon. "Ah, that's just you."

"...Yeah, just me," Sonic confirmed, trying not to feel too weirded out by the reaction to a mere greeting; Jet had warned him that Sticks didn't really have all her marbles. "Hey, haven't you seen Shadow by any chance? I kinda cannot find him."

"No, I haven't." She vehemently shook her head. "And I'm glad I didn't." She scooted closer, leaning in and continuing in a low hushed tone almost as if she didn't want other people to hear them, "He really wants to hunt me, you know."

Sonic blinked. "...he wants to  _what_? "

"Hunt me!" She repeated, reaching for her trusty weapon once again, her gaze now firmly locked on the crowd nearby, her eyes vigilant and watchful. "But he doesn't have a chance. I'm _ready_."

"Um..." Sonic raised a questioning brow, honestly having no idea what was the girl on about; as far as he knew the only time the two had interacted was the glaring contest back at lunch—and that wasn't what Shadow looked like when he was out for blood. "Why exactly do you think Shadow wants to... _hunt_  you?"

And why was he having a feeling that 'hunt' actually wasn't the word he should be using here?

"I've trained my nose for these things. It's necessary when you live in the wild like me."

Sonic himself had spent the majority of his life 'out in the wild' and had over the time developed a nose for a trouble, but if you asked him, he hadn't sensed any malicious intent from Shadow back at the lunch so he guessed that Sticks was just being paranoid again—it wouldn't be surprising considering what he'd seen her do so far.

Thus he said just, "Huh, cool," ceasing all conversation with the remark until the Babylon Rogues arrived.

O-o-O-o-O

Good news? Shadow had appeared. Bad news? He had lost him again. Even worse news? A particular someone had apparently bounced back from their experience with angry Shadow.

" _Hee hee!_  Hey, Sonic!"

The cobalt hero sighed exasperatedly as he shifted on his Extreme Gear to face the person, already knowing whom to expect and knowing that ignoring the guy wouldn't help him. He'd tried already. Five times. "What's it this time?" he asked, letting his annoyance known in his tone.

"We should,  _hee hee_ , get a dinner together,  _hoo hoo_ , after this."

Sonic scowled and turned his gaze back on the track, watching out for the power-ups that they were supposed to use in this round—which was basically a battle royale at neck-breaking speeds.  _Oh, boy._ "I already told you I'm not interested."

"Aw, man,  _hee hee_ , it's really hard,  _hee hee_ , make you DTF, isn't it?" the Witchcarter asked him, wiggling his brows even though the other wasn't watching.

"DTF?" Sonic asked, perplexed by the unknown term. The hero raised a questioning eye-ridge as he turned his gaze back to his fellow contestant, expecting an explanation.

The wolf gave him a wolfish (ha!) grin as he brought up his hands, wiggling his fingers before making an 'OK' gesture with one hand while making a gun gesture with the other.

And then he pushed the finger gun through the loop of the 'O' and sharply back thrice while at the same time throwing him the lewdest look Sonic had ever gotten in his whole life.

It took Sonic's brain a single second to translate the crude display into a mental image and at the very moment it did, Sonic felt nausea hit him, his stomach threating to return its contents they same way they had arrived.

Gulping to calm his gag-reflex and to make his lunch stay where it was, Sonic snapped his gaze back to the road ahead, at the same time trying to force the disturbing image out of his head. The idea of doing that with the insolent wolf felt just downright disgusting.

Once sure the pizza was staying where it was, Sonic dared to take a look at the smirking wolf, forcing his own expression to be as impassive as possible when he shrugged his shoulder dismissively. "Nah, not much. Manners and not being an ass usually does the job," he said, the remark making the self-assured smirk slowly fall from Falke's face. "Though I clearly cannot expect either from you."

For some reason, the wolf looked at severe loss of words—and giggles—suddenly.

Sonic grinned as he zipped forward, hitting the dash panel to propel himself forward and over another water section, Falke right at his tail.

"But you can,  _hoo hoo_ , expect a night you'll never forget."

"Why? Are you planning to set your bed on fire or something?"

"I—What?"

"I mean that never happened to me, so that definitely would be an unique unforgettable experience—wait, now when I think about Blaze has actually once set my bed on fire that one time she got drunk," Sonic mused aloud, recalling the vague memories of that particular party; he still sometimes wondered what on Mobius could have Rouge had said that had led to the drinking competition between her and Blaze.

Figuring he better pay attention to the race rather than go down the memory lane—this whole round was about catching others off guard after all—Sonic forced himself to focus back on the present. He turned back to the wolf, shrugging his shoulders as he remarked nonchalantly, "So, sorry, it seems you'll have to come up with some other idea."

" _Hee hee._  What about a nice romantic  _bath_?" Falke grinned, something dangerous flashing in his eyes and making unease twist in Sonic's gut. "Right about... _now_?"

Out of nowhere, Sonic felt something collide into him, making him shout out in surprise and throwing him off balance, his moment of inattentiveness to his surroundings causing his downfall.

_Literally._

"Sorry about that~!" The culprit, Carrotia, merely waved at him and blew him a kiss before continuing forward with a laughing Falke at her side. However, Sonic didn't really pay any attention to either of them.

Because right now he was falling right into one of the big water pools.

And even though the color of his fur might suggest otherwise, he  _doesn't_  do well with water.

_No, no, no, no—_  "NO—!"

Sonic could feel the moment his feet broke through the water surface—it was the very same moment he saw a flash of movement from the corner of his eye on his side and the moment felt one of his hand beings grasped in an iron grip.

His hand immediately wrapped around the one holding him, too many near-death experiences making him instinctively grab onto anything he could get his hands on when falling—even though it yanked at his shoulder with enough force that if felt as if it were about to be dislocated but not doing so; he guessed it were the years of pulling stunts like this he had to thank for.

And even though his shoulder was in pain, Sonic couldn't resist letting out an excited "Woohoo!" when Shadow made a twist in the air to cancel his falling momentum and generate some centrifugal force to help him to get on the board behind him—with a bit of struggle and a bit of balancing as those things simply weren't made for two people.

But, hey, as long as it was alright with the whole 'the team with the last functioning EG wins' rule, it was fine; no one ever said it couldn't be a _single_ board.

"You know, you're kinda hard to get a  _hold of_ ," Sonic joked just as he wrapped an arm around the other's waist—even though his feet were on the board, his current stance wasn't exactly good for maintaining balance and like this Shadow could work with both of their weight without him accidentally jeopardizing anything or falling off the board when Shadow made a sharper turn. "Oh, by the way, I want to talk to you at the end of the round."

Shadow made some vague throaty sound that Sonic presumed was supposed to be some kind of acknowledgment of his remark. Then, without any previous warning, Shadow suddenly boosted forward, Sonic barely managing to hold on Shadow and not fall off as he had not expected Shadow to pull such move right at this section.

Though it at least significantly shortened the distance the Witchcarters had gained on them. However, if they wanted to win, they needed to get ahead of them before Witchcarters got a power-up and possible put their gear out of commission with it—

An idea popped up in Sonic's mind.

"Hey, Shadow, how good are you at dodgeball?"

For a moment, there was no reply, but then ever so slowly, Shadow glanced at him over his shoulder, his furrowed brows an obvious sign the agent had no idea where the hero was heading with this topic.

Seeing he needed to elaborate a bit, Sonic gestured to himself and made a move as if he were about to roll into a ball. Then he thrust his hand in Falke's direction, the agent's brows raising in understanding what did he mean this time.

A smirk spread across Shadow's face.

Up ahead, a certain wolf suddenly felt his inner alarm going off. However, before he could have even wondered why his sixth sense was telling him he was in danger, he could already hear his teammate's panicked voice shouting, "Falkie, duck!" and feel the impact of a seventy-seven-pound hedgehog projectile against his back.

Falke's mouth opened in a strangled shout as he fell forward, the combination of Sonic's momentum and the unforgiving gravity pulling his feet over the edge of his Extreme Gear. The wolf flailed his arms, desperately trying to grab onto something—and thus accidentally ended up dragging even Carrotia down with him, both of them send free-falling before they could even attempt to find their bearings again.

On the other hand, Sonic who was used to being thrown around—which usually happened 9 times out of 10 not out of his volition, unfortunately—had no problem with finding his own bearings; he just effortlessly rebound from the glass wall of track, timing his moment of uncurling so his feet would land perfectly on the activation sensors of one of the rider-less Extreme Gears, the machine immediately flaring back to life.

"I'm gonna borrow this if you don't mind!" Sonic mock-saluted the currently drenched rabbit and wolf, not able to resist grinning just a bit at the wet-like-dog image of Falke. "Enjoy your _romantic_ bath in the meantime, you two!" And with these last words, Sonic departed, catching up to Shadow in matter of seconds.

And as they raced towards the finish, Sonic had to admit one thing about Shadow.

He had one  _hell_ of a throwing arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: As I have already said at the start, I unfortunately cannot say when I'll update next. University is being...demanding. Don't worry, I don't plan to abandon this story or go on a hiatus; the updates are just gonna take longer. (Let's all hope that it's not gonna take 2 and half months like this one...)
> 
> Thank you all for being so patient and amazing! You rock!
> 
> [Last edited: 2018-07-09]


	12. Helping Hand

"You could have smiled at least a bit for the press, ya know, Shad," Sonic commented with a small frown, throwing up and down the prize Chaos Emerald that had been handed to them at the end of the award ceremony. "People wouldn't be as hesitant to approach you if you didn't always look as if you've just eaten a lemon."

Unsurprisingly, Shadow only made some vague disinterested sound as a response to his remark, the agent clearly not feeling like possibly changing his ways.

Sonic sighed and tucked the Chaos Emerald away into his head-quills; he didn't feel like carrying it around for the rest of the day and it was the best place for safe-keeping until they got home and could place it in an actual safe.

"I guess it's time to head back," he commented with a small sigh as he looked at the horizon, the setting sun bathing all in orange light. Though as it seemed the approaching night didn't bother most people; families and friends were still walking around, enjoying themselves and the food, and buying or trying Extreme Gear; the staff had even set up a small arena with padding on all sides and a giant trampoline for a floor so kids could safely try their hand at riding EG.

Sonic couldn't fight back a smile as he continued to observe the kids in the arena; he fondly remembered his own first time on EG—the rush of excitement and adrenaline that it had sent rushing through his veins...

(Though the fact he was chasing 'criminals' at the time probably helped a bit too, he wasn't gonna lie..)

_Though it still doesn't compare to jumping from a helicopter and then surfing down the road._ Sonic chuckled, but at the same time grimaced a bit at the memory. Yeah, the whole surfing down the road was fun but the insane GUN truck chase that followed...

Sonic involuntarily shivered as he recalled the experience; it took him a long time after that to start feeling comfortable around cars again.

Alright, that was a really weird sentence to say...

Sighing, Sonic shook his head to clear it of thais particular train of thought. He should focus on different stuff like...how Shadow was trying to keep as much distance possible between them without making it too obvious and _kinda_  failing at it.

_Or maybe he wants it to be obvious,_  his brain disagreed once more (like it often did these days), once again reminding him that there was an issue he was supposed to get to the bottom of.

Determined to do exactly that now when he finally had the chance, he turned to Shadow, who at the moment seemed to be adjusting his wrist communicator and thus was not looking at him. However; just as he was about to open his mouth, a familiar voice sounded from Shadow's communicator, interrupting him.

_"Sonic, I know you're there with Shadow. Answer me."_

Sonic sighed internally.  _Man, I can't catch a break today, can I?_  He waited for Shadow to tap the button that would open the line on their side before speaking up, "Yeah, Rouge, what do you need?"

_"Say, Sonic, have you ever seen the Station Square's underground? It's truly an interesting place."_

Sonic blinked, unsure what to make of the comment. He glanced at Shadow, hoping the other might provide some king of explanation, but the agent just gave an exasperated sigh and then the 'what did you do this time?' look to the communicator.

"Not really...? Why are you asking?"  _And should I be worried?_  Shadow didn't seem to be...

_"Well, you see I could use an extra pair or two of hands around here..."_

O-o-O-o-O

Sighing, Fang massaged his temples to ease the oncoming headache.

Nothing was working out today for them; even this  _blasted_  plan was starting to look worse and worse with each passed minute..

Three tries. They were given three tries to pull the mission off and yet they still had nothing to show for it even though they had already used two.

In theory what had been asked of them was an easy mission; distract Sonic and lure Shadow away so Metal Sonic could 'deal' with him—whatever _that_  was supposed to mean—without Sonic interfering.

Distraction and bat-set-up. It was a simple two step process. They didn't have to fight themselves, they didn't have to break into anywhere, they just needed to  _separate_  the two.

And the tournament had been a perfect place for it; there had been so many people, it had been  _noisy_  and  _crowded_ ; the conditions for separating the two had been  _perfect_.

Even the plan had been  _perfect_ ; the Witchcarters—whom Sonic didn't know apart from them and thus would have no reason to feel suspicious about—had been supposed to draw Sonic's attention away while they themselves had lured Shadow away with the use of Chaos Emerald—as, according to Dr. Eggman, Shadow was able to sense them and would surely go investigate if the Chaos Emerald was close enough. Then Metal Sonic would 'deal' with him—he still wasn't sure what the doctor had meant by that—and they'd be free to go and whatever they wanted with the Chaos Emerald—keep it, sell it, maybe even set up an illegal  _underground_  tournament for it...

The point was that the plan had been perfect, it  _should have_  worked. At first, it had even seemed it would; Shadow had been openly looking around, searching for the Chaos Emerald at one point, but the commotion the Witchcarters had caused quickly drew Shadow's attention back to Sonic and thus ruined everything.

Then during the last break they couldn't even find the ebony hedgehog and then during the last round Shadow completely ignored their Chaos Emerald bait even though Bark had at one point actually raced in disguise _right_  behind him.

_It was a bad idea to drag the Witchcarters into this._ That was very much obvious now. But there was nothing he could do about that now. If they wanted to keep their relations with Witchcarters friendly—which he'd rather do as he definitely didn't want to be on the bad side of such (unfortunately powerful)  _nut-cases_ like they were—he was gonna have to give up the information he had promised them for their help.

He clenched his hand into a fist. Their last attempt just had to succeed. Otherwise, they were going to lose their precious information for  _nothing_. Not for a Chaos Emerald, not money, but absolutely  _nothing._

Instead he'd get a bunch of throat-cutters coming after him for organizing a fighting tournament for a Chaos Emerald without having any Chaos Emeralds to give out...

Their last shot had to work out. It just  _had to_.

Fang's gaze rove over the mostly criminal assemblage, over thirty people already, both familiar faces and not—but the one particular that they were waiting for still—

_The bat gal is here._

He blinked in sudden surprised; he hadn't even seen _her_ arrive.

She was standing at the entrance to one of the tunnels, her lips were moving and she was fiddling with something that looked like a miniature communicator.

Fang's lips pulled into a smirk. It seemed luck was finally back on their side...

O-o-O-o-O

"Sooo, do you do this often?" Sonic questioned as he looked around the underground Rouge had 'invited' them too—some kind of sewer from the looks—and, unfortunately, also  _smell_ —of it. His face twisted into a grimace, his nose scrunching up at the foul smell.  _Yuck._ "Just for the fun of it sneaking your way through sewers?"

"From time to time, though it's not my favorite pastime..." Rouge commented as she ducked while passing under one of the big tubes that were crisscrossing the length of the sewer. "A bit of exploration of places like this can often bring unexpected monetary results. You'd be surprised what kind of things you can find here."

Sonic kind of doubted that. He already knew what kind of stuff there could be found—trash, Master Emerald shards and occasionally ancient watery gods...

"Are you sure you don't wanna try it?" Rouge shot him an amused grin, clearly finding his distaste amusing.

"Very sure—I'll leave the treasure hunting to you. We, hedgehogs, have  _waaay_  too sensitive noses to spend too much time in here," Sonic answered, now covering his nose, and hoping it would block out some of the smell at least a bit. "Right, Shad?" He glanced over his shoulder at the last member of their party, who was following after them, neither he looking very thrilled about their current whereabouts.

"Don't worry, boys." Rouge only chuckled at their discomfort. "We are almost there."

The hedgehog duo exchanged glances, neither sure what to expect. Nonetheless, they still continued on following her.

—though that didn't mean Sonic wasn't eager to find out. "You know, Rouge, you still haven't explained what exactly you need us here for..." he voiced, his curiosity still waiting to be sated.

"Have I?" the bat questioned, her lips pulling in an amused grin as if she had just heard a great joke. For a few moments she said nothing else, the same smile still lingering on her lips, then...

_"Let's start already!"_

Shadow and Sonic exchanged a surprised look at the unexpected booming voice coming from deeper into the tunnel. Actually, as they were getting nearer, it seemed that the voice actually wasn't only  _one..._

"Well, if you really want to know so bad. You're here to help me—" Rouge turned around, winked at them and the flew out of the sewer into a better lit area, making a dramatic spin and spreading her arms widely like a host presenting their show. "—win a Chaos Emerald!"

"A Chaos Emerald?" Sonic repeated, stepping towards the tunnel entrance and looking down onto the new area, the voices now reaching them with the utmost clarity. The area below was a vast, circular space, strongly reminiscent of the Spagonian Colosseum. The gladiator-ish atmosphere was even more enhanced by the amount of shouting that was reverberating through the spacious room, the spectators obviously very eager and impatient to finally get on with the show.

"...in some kind of illegal fighting tournament I presume...?"

"Correct," Rouge affirmed with at grin as she floated to the ground. Her eyes sparkled as she began to descend the steps, towards the arena, where the other contenders were already amassing, stretching themselves, sparring to warm up or chatting with others to find more info about their opponents. "Boy, this brings so many memories..."

Sonic raised a brow at the comment. "You've done this already?"

"Nowadays only once or twice a year," the bat replied, giving him a brief glance over her shoulder. "Though there were times when I used to fight in these every other Saturday—there's quite a bit of money in this for the winner..."

"Why don't you fight anymore?" Sonic inquired, honestly curious; from what he had seen he knew Rouge's combat skills were remarkable and that she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty to get what she wanted. "You've gotten bored?"

"No, it's just that nowadays I know there are people I know I can rely on to help me with money if necessary." She gave a meaningful glance in Shadow's direction before looking forward once again, her lips pulling into a thin angry line. "Unlike my family when I was growing up..."

Sonic blinked surprisedly; this was the first time he had heard Rouge speak of her family—but then again they weren't such a great friends and generally didn't talk often. In the rare times they did, they never talked about family—or, well,  _biological_  family; in his case, it was because he'd never had met his and Rouge never spoke of hers—considering how resentful Rouge appeared to be about her family explained why.

Therefore, for this same reason, he figured it would be better to divert their conversation elsewhere as Rouge surely wouldn't enjoy dwelling on such a topic.

"Ehm, how...how did you find out there was even gonna be a fight over a Chaos Emerald today?"

_Smooth, Sonic, really smooth..._ _ **sandpaper**_ _smooth_...

Rouge gave him a small smile, well-aware that he was trying to move them to less personal topics—how could she not when it was so apparent?— but she was obviously appreciative of the attempt as she immediately grasped the offered opportunity.

"I have acquaintances that told me about it—about an hour ago. The tournament has apparently been organized in a rush."

"Well, we're gonna win it even faster! Right, Shad?" He stopped walking and turned to look at the ebony agent, who so far had yet to say—or at least  _sign_ —anything.

However, Shadow wasn't looking at Sonic but instead down into the fighting pit. He was just standing there with arms crossed over his chest, his expression unreadable, the only hint of emotion visible in his eyes that kept glaring onto the fighters down below. His jaw was clenched, his shoulders were stiff and his fingers were digging into his biceps in the same manner they had done back at lunch.

Though somehow Sonic could say that he wasn't the reason this time.

"Shadow?" Sonic tried again, this time managing to get the other's attention and get the agent to look at him. "You look... _tense_." Yeah, that seemed like the best word to pick. "Is everything alright?"

Shadow blinked, as if in confusion, his stone expression softening for a brief moment before the agent once again locked all the emotions away from it, giving a resolute nod before turning his gaze back to the spectacle below and resuming walking down the stairs.

The tension, however, didn't disappear from the agent's body language.

Brows furrowing, Sonic's lips pulled into a scowl at this finding. Was something bothering Shadow?

"Don't overthink it, Blue."

"Huh?"

"I've dragged him to one of these tournaments before. He acted the same. It's no big deal." Rouge shrugged her shoulders. "Just his general distrust for big masses of people rearing its ugly head."

Sonic frowned. Shadow never let other people make him uncomfortable, or, well, at least tried to make himself _seem_  he wasn't uncomfortable—and Sonic had to admit that most of the time Shadow did a great job at that.

Back at the EG tournament he definitely didn't seem bothered by the amount of people and Sonic would guess that the amount there and here was roughly the same, so he doubted distrust was the reason for his behavior as Rouge suggested.

Maybe was Shadow currently experiencing some side-effect of the serum again and was just trying to hide it?

But, then again, Rouge had said he had behaved the same the last time, so it probably wasn't the serum's interference...

Though considering  _that_ , was it even a good idea to let him fight? Who knew what him getting worked up would cause this time?

_Well, maybe he'd get back his speaking capabilities..._ That would be a pretty good side-effect if you asked Sonic. Charades were fun and all, but Shadow being capable of at least some basic verbal communication would make things  _infinitely_  easier in the long run.

Sonic sighed as he walked down the last couple of stairs, joining Shadow, who was leaning against the wall, looking around while Rouge had ran off somewhere—most likely to sign them up. Well, if they even  _did_  those things at illegal tournaments...

Leaning against the wall next to his ebony counterpart, Sonic looked around curiously at who were to be their future opponents, studying the others and wondering whether any of them would offer an exciting fight.

It took him only a few seconds to notice a group of familiar faces in the crowd.

_Whoa, are those—?!_ He blinked in surprise. It had been  _years_  since he'd last seen those three—heck, he didn't even know they were still functioning!

He let his eyes linger at the trio, studying the robot monkey, rooster and... Well, to be honest, he had never been sure what Grounder was supposed to represent—a mole perhaps...?

Well, whatever they all were, the robots had definitely been doing well while they hadn't seen each other as all of them were wearing what seemed to be _pretty_  expensive tuxedos—

"My, my, who are you eyeing so eagerly?"

"Just the three over there." Sonic pointed in the direction of Eggman's former robotic henchmen, not even surprised by Rouge's sudden appearance; she always appeared at the most unexpected moments. "The robot monkey, mole and rooster..."

"A  _rooster_?" Rouge piped up, sounding intrigued. She glanced Scratch's way and looked the robot up and down...and her lips pulled into an impish grin. "Do you think he'd be willing to give me a piggyback ride?Because then I could say that I've ridden the biggest co—"

However, before Rouge could finish that sentence, Shadow covered her mouth with his hand. Then he gestured something at her with the other, the flow of signs too fast for Sonic to even guess what they meant.

Whatever it was that he had said—Sonic honestly had no clue—Rouge just rolled her eyes and gestured something back that made Shadow let his hand fall back to his side—though it wasn't without his own roll of eyes and a look of great exasperation.

"Apparently, Shadow's not in a mood for my clever wordplay today," Rouge offered as an explanation when she saw the hero's questioning gaze. She theatrically sighed. "I guess I'll just have to keep to 'Two went and the middle one fell,' type of jokes for today."

Sonic blinked. "That...doesn't really make any sense, Rouge."

"That's the point, hon." She grinned as she handed him a paper with a number on it, winking at him. "It  _infuriates_  him."

O-o-O-o-O

"You know, I'd have felt almost sorry for him..." Rouge commented as she watched Sonic round-house kick his opponent out of the ring, the orange dingo landing harshly on the concrete floor. "If I haven't bet on Sonic. That is." Her lips pulled into a wide grin as she raised her hand expectantly. "Pay up."

The dingo's teammate, the tall gray wolf who was standing next to her, didn't look very displeased with the fact; he made no move to fish-out his wallet or raise his hands to transfer rings directly.

Instead he said, "The battle was rigged in his favor."

"How may I ask?" Rouge raised a question brow. "If anything, you rigged the battle in _your_  favor with using that magic remote of yours."

"Nobody said we cannot use enhancements."

"Yeah, but there's a rule against weapons and thus turning your friend's arms into chain-saws doesn't seem exactly like fair-play—or something that should be physically possible—buuut that's not the point of this conversation, is it?" She met his gaze, determined and unrelenting. "So, are you gonna pay up? Or do I have to tell my friend to _help_ you with that?" She pointed her thumb in Shadow's direction. "Though I warn you; he's in a particularly  _bad_ mood today, so you probably shouldn't test his patience too much..."

The wolf looked where she was pointing and visibly stiffened; it was without a doubt that he recognized Shadow; thanks to the Black Arms invasion, Shadow had become almost as well-known as Sonic. Thanks to the same event it had  _also_  became well-known that it was  _not_ a good idea to anger Shadow if you wished to see another day unlike those aliens.

And the wolf was obviously well-informed as he didn't try to push on anymore the moment Shadow openly glared at him. Even though it was obvious that he was not happy about it, in the end, the wolf took out the promised three one-hundred dollar bills and handed them to her.

"It's pleasure doing business with you~" Rouge grinned as she took the money and immediately stuffed it into one of her hidden pockets for future bets; she and Shadow were still waiting for their turn.

The wolf scoffed and then went to collect his teammate, who was currently stumbling around like a drunk-man; Sonic's blow had apparently put his sense of balance out of commission for the moment.

She couldn't fight of a smile as aforementioned culprit jogged up to them, looking quite pleased with himself. "I did pretty good, didn't I?"

Crossing her arms over her chest, Rouge grinned. "You won me 300 dollars, so, yes, I'd call it 'pretty' good."

"You've bet only 300 dollars on me?" Sonic raised a brow, his tone teasing. "I didn't know you believed in me this little."

"This is not a question of trust, Big Blue, I just didn't have enough cash on me. Most of it went to signing us up for this tournament. How about sponsoring me a bit for now?" She grinned and winked at him. "I promise to give the money back to you tomorrow."

Sonic didn't see a reason not to humor her. "Are rings alright with you?"

"Sure." She offered her hand to let him transfer the rings. He immediately outstretched his arm letting the rings fall right into Rouge's waiting hand.

"Here ya go."

Rouge flexed her fingers, the ring energy now rushing through her veins, making her skin appear to be glowing. A big smirk was spreading across her face. "Oh, boys, you're gonna make me a fortune." Rouge grinned at both of them. "Please, excuse me while I'm gonna find a fool that will be willing to bet against Shadow."

The over-energetic voice of the commenter called out, announcing the next two fighters that would be facing each other before (without any apparent reason) promptly breaking into a song that tore at Sonic's well-trained ears—Chaos, whoever the commenter was they needed to get singing classes ASAP—and therefore, Sonic did his best to ignore the awful singing and instead focus on looking for the two fighters that were about to face each other.

_Fifty-nine and... Wait, isn't fifty-nine that Shadow's number?_  Sonic questioned and a brief glance to the paper Shadow was holding confirmed it. The agent was already pushing himself away from the wall to go into the fighting ring, where his opponent, a giant gorilla, was already waiting for him, passing the time until he arrived by chatting with a blue hawk and a lynx.

The guy definitely looked like more trouble than the one Sonic had been fighting; he seemed like he could actually pack a  _punch_.

Therefore, as Shadow was walking past him, Sonic choose to clasp a hand on the agent's shoulder. "Don't push yourself unnecessarily, 'kay?"

Shadow turned to gaze at him questioningly.

"If at any point you feel  _unwell_ , just give up," Sonic elaborated, not wanting the agent to come to harm. He knew well that Shadow wouldn't give up unless he was physically incapable of continuing the fight—that was an admirable (and occasionally infuriating) trait both of them had—and last time the serum didn't have any negative side-effects on Shadow's performance during battle but still...one never knew with Eggman's inventions—he just wanted Shadow to bear mind in such situation it was okay to cut some slack and not feel bad about it.

"We've got it covered even if you drop out," he finished, squeezing the ebony agent's shoulder reassuringly, smiling softly at the other.

The agent looked at him with an unreadable gaze but gave a nod of acknowledgement to his words. Then Shadow resumed his descend, at one point having to push his way through a group of drunken spectators that were blocking his way as they were standing at the stairs.

A hiss left Shadow's mouth when one of the drunks happened to sharply elbow him in the side. However, figuring out they were too drunk to even remember it later, he didn't lash out at the hooded stranger and just continued on his way towards the fighting ring.

What Shadow thus didn't see were the emotionless red optics of the hooded figure turning to look at him the moment he turned away nor them following the single drop of blood that escaped the tiny punctuation wound on his side.

O-o-O-o-O

With a big smirk on his face, Fang marveled at the white Chaos Emerald in his hands, letting himself just enjoy holding it and  _owning_  it for the time being before he would have to hand it to whoever was gonna be the winner. But, hey, he was going to get to keep a disgusting amount of money in return so he didn't believe it to be such a bad deal...

He twisted the pale gem in his hands again, feeling quite pleased with how the things had turned out in the end; Rouge had done exactly what they expected her to do and called on the help of her friends, therefore, giving them the chance to carry out their original plan—successfully this time, and thus getting to keep a Chaos Emerald as a reward.

However, his moment of enjoying success was cut short when a familiar loud voice reached his ears.

"Guess who's back~" Carrotia sing-songed as she and the rest of her team approached him, Barry looking...well, angry as he normally did, and Falke, lying face down on Carrotia's hover-board and occasionally letting out a pained whimper.

Fang grimaced when he recalled how he had ended up there.

"Don't worry, Falkie! Boss will put you back in shape once we get back!" Carry gave her teammate's back a friendly pat, which was probably meant to be soothing, but instead it made Falke shout out in pain. Carrotia immediately jerked her hand back. "Oopsie! Sorry, Falkie!"

Falke made some vague sound that could either be him accepting her apology or cursing at her; Fang couldn't say for sure when the other's mouth was plastered against the board.

"We're here for the information," Barry grunt out, his voice alone saying he wouldn't accept any complaints about their performance this time. "Hand it over or else..."

"There's no need for threats," Fang assured them as he threw the Chaos Emerald towards Bark, who was standing by the door through which the Witchcarters had entered the room. Fang reached into the secret pocket of his boot and took out the paper that held the information that the Witchcarters desired to get their hands on. "Here."

Carrotia eagerly took the paper and, with an expression of kid opening their gifts at their birthday, unfolded it.

The grin that spread on her face just a moment later was wide and blinding as the sun itself.

"Hee hee, I said it would be  _Spagonia_ ~! I win! Hee hee!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-09]
> 
> AN: Oh, no, is that *dramatic music plays* plot brewing in the distance? *DUN DUN*  
> But now lets get serious. My biggest thanks to everybody who has commented, bookmarked or kudosed! Your support means a lot to me and I couldn't ask for better readers!  
> I hope you all have a great next year! :D  
> Tirainy out!  
> UPDATE: Okay, I've been just informed that my stories are circulating somewhere where they shouldn't be. So for all my readers: I post my storiers ONLY on Fanfiction net and Archive of Our Own. Nowhere else. If you see my stories elsewhere that's NOT me posting them. Please, inform me straight away if you discover my stories anywhere else.


	13. Wondering Wanderer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to HardSonadowFanGirl (from over at FF.net) for betaing this chapter.

"Two emeralds in a span of twelve hours. A pretty productive day, wouldn't you say?" Sonic commented with a chuckle as he threw the white Chaos Emerald they had won into the air and caught it again, and then followed the action by stretching his back lightly, his entire body sore from the way too many hours of fighting and EG racing; he was honestly _craving_ for a warm shower and bed at this point. "Though I'd call it quits for now. I don't know about you two but I feel like crashing out for next couple of hours."

"You speak my language, darling." Rouge grinned as she stretched herself too, her arms high in the air and wings fluttering slightly behind her. "A soft bed sounds very nice at the—argh, give me a moment." With a frown crossing her face, Rouge reached into her boot to take out a small cellphone, swiping her thumb to accept the call before promptly placing it to her ear. "Rouge the Bat speaking."

Rouge remained completely silent as she listened to the person on the other side. Her gaze swayed to them, though. "Actually, they're here with me," she announced to whoever was on the other side before outstretching her hand that held the cellphone towards Sonic. "Tails's calling," she offered as an explanation to his confused look.

"Huh? Tails?" Sonic took the cellphone, glancing at it questioningly—How did Tails even _know_ they were with Rouge? It wasn't like he'd told him about her—before placing it to his ear. "Sonic here. What's the matter?"

_"Well, you haven't been home for a long time so I got worried and called Rouge if she happened to know where you are,"_ Tails confessed quietly, almost sounding ashamed of admitting it.

"Ah." _One would think you'd stop worrying about me after all these years._ But then again Tails was still a kid and because of growing up he was probably becoming more acutely aware of how dangerous his lifestyle actually was. Wanting to ease those worries, Sonic promptly explained, "You see, we just made a little detour to get another Emerald—which we've got by the way. We'll be home soon—a half an hour at max—" Sonic was about to say 'see you home' and hang up the call, but then a certain thought occurred to him.

"Wait a minute, what are _you_ still doing up at this hour?"

For a couple of seconds there was only silence on the other side of the line and then the call quickly disconnected, the young genius obviously aware he was in _deep_ trouble for not respecting the lights-out.

Sonic stared at the cellphone in his hand for a moment before snorting in amusement. _Nice trick, but I'm still scolding you once we get home._ Shaking his head and chuckling under his breath, he turned around to hand the phone back to its rightful owner. "Since when does Tails have your number?"

"We figured it'd be better in case something happened; the amount of trouble you manage to get yourself into just calls for it," Rouge replied in matter-of-fact tone as she took her phone and slipped it back into her boot before stretching herself once more. "Well, I guess it's about time for me to leave. But first—"

Before he could blink, the white Chaos Emerald that they had won was swept from Sonic's hands into Rouge's, the bat giving him a wink when he turned to gaze at her questioningly.

"You don't mind if I keep this for some time, do you? It's safer to keep these gems at different places just in case, after all," she remarked with a grin—which Sonic had to admit that, yes, she had a point, but Tails would still make a better use of them—but before Sonic could argue about it, Rouge was already beating her wings and rising into the air, a big grin on her face. "Don't stay up too long, you two! You have to set an example to the young ones, remember?" She winked at them once more before turning around and soaring high into the air, taking off for Club Rouge. "See you later, boys!"

"Take care!" Sonic called after her, waving at her until she disappeared in the distance.

"Man, today was an exciting day, wouldn't you say?" Sonic said as he turned towards Shadow, who was still as quiet as a mouse—getting his blood boiling with a hard fight hadn't helped him regain his speaking capabilities this time, unfortunately.

Therefore, instead of an eloquent reply, the agent only gave a curt nod of agreement, the same unreadable emotionless mask that he had worn since the EG prize ceremony still on his face; Shadow was a hard guy to read even when he wasn't purposefully hiding away his emotions, but Sonic learned that the longer Shadow tried to maintain the emotionless facade the more was something bothering him.

_And I still have no idea what that something is..._ Sonic sighed; he had planned to talk with Shadow about it before, but the fighting tournament had deprived him of most of his energy so he really wasn't feeling up to solving whatever the issue was; it would have to wait until tomorrow.

"...How about finishing it with a race?" he suggested after a moment of silence, believing it might be a great way for both of them to take their minds off things and have fun; even if Shadow wasn't so vocal about it—and often tried to deny it—he knew the other enjoyed racing with him just as much as he did. "It's been a long time since we had one."

Shadow shrugged his shoulders, huffing in the 'if you insist' matter before he just started jogging, letting the hero catch up to him before quickening his pace into what would be a slow sprint for the two of them but which to the ordinary folk would just look like two blurs of color.

They left the city behind them, the wind now loudly howling in their ears as they continued to run forward across the empty plains and forest, ever so slowly quickening the pace but nearing nowhere close to supersonic speeds—it was dark with only moonlight illuminating their way and the heroes' house was deep in the forest.

Lightning fast reflexes mean  _nothing_ when you cannot see that there's an obstacle in your way.

From the corner of his eye, Sonic glanced to his side at his ebony companion, who, if it weren't for the faint moonlight and the bright flames of his hover-skates illuminating his form, would have completely blended into his surroundings. The agent was staring right ahead, crimson eyes locked on the horizon and blazing with equal intensity as the flame of his shoes.

A way too serious expression for something that was supposed to be fun in Sonic's opinion.

"What's the matter, Shad? Why so slow today?!" Sonic called out, letting his teasing side slip out to lure out Shadow's own and finally be graced with something else than some alternative of a poker-face; considering neither of them had touched any cards today, the usage seemed highly disproportionate. "You got yourself new  _snail_ skates or something?!" 

However, Shadow didn't look at him nor did he react to his taunting in any other way. The flick of an ebony ear in his vague direction was the agent's only acknowledgment that Shadow had heard him.

Sonic's brows furrowed in puzzlement. Why was he getting ignored again? Had he done something? Or was Shadow just stepping up his weird game of distancing himself again? Now ignoring his existence  _altogether_ ?

Peach lips pressed into a thin line.

He understood that this avoid-and-ignore tactic wasn't most likely supposed to be something he should take offense to or feel bad about, but instead just take it as Shadow's way of trying to deal with his desire—out of sight, out of mind, and all that—but he just couldn't help himself but feel somehow...he wasn't sure how to even label the emotion. He just felt kind of... _bad_. He didn't want his mere presence to drive people away—to feel like someone who needed to be avoided.

Like..like...if he had a plague or something.

_Alright, tha_ _t one m_ _ight be a_ _ **bit**_ _of an exaggeration..._ Though his point still stood—he didn't want Shadow to avoid him, he just...he just wanted things to be somehow normal again. He didn't care if Shadow wouldn't 'talk' to him and demand five feet of space between them while in the same area—he just didn't want Shadow to keep running away.

He just wanted everything to seem normal again.

_But isn't this how it has been before? Isn't_ _**this** _ _the normal state of things?_ t he voice at the back of his mind questioned.  _Shadow has been doing this for years, hasn't he? It's just more obvious now when you have to to spend so much time around one another..._

Sonic pondered the thought. Them meeting one another has always been caused mostly by coincidence; Shadow wasn't a person who would seek out the company of other people and the agent himself was a person that was hard to get hold of; there wasn't a real schedule to his day-to-day life as being a GUN agent required time-flexibility so there was no way to really know when he could be found at Club Rouge.

Occasionally, it was also Eggman's doing—in the rare cases that Egghead managed to come up with a robot that required Sonic to have a back-up—which more than often happened to be Shadow because GUN always send him as he could get there the fastest out of all their agents thanks to his speed and ability to use chaos control.

The times when they bumped into each other by accident were few and far in between and they usually either raced or sparred during them—if Sonic managed to convince Shadow, that is. He could usually get Shadow to fight (or race) him 2 out of 3 times just by asking the agent or persuading him—aka nagging Shadow until he lost his patience and gave in—for a couple of minutes. Outside of that they didn't spend much time together.

Except for occasionally saving the world, of course.

(Some people go for a coffee to catch up, they go beat up a villain. Sonic's life had always been nothing but extraordinary.)

Generally, Shadow wouldn't even show up at any of the gang's parties; there had been numerous times when somebody from the gang would throw a party and Shadow wouldn't come even though he'd been invited. There were some rare times that Rouge actually managed to drag him to it and that one time where she purposefully didn't tell Shadow that she would be throwing a party and that she would organize it at Club Rouge two weeks in advance of her birthday date.

She also stole Shadow's Chaos Emerald and then held it as hostage for the remainder of night to ensure Shadow would stay. Shadow had  _not_ been happy about that one when he'd found out and showed it by spending most of it lurking in a dark corner of the Club far from the others and being a jerk to everyone that dared to go and talk to him— _especially_ to Rouge.

Sonic, of course, wasn't one to be deterred easily and so even though Shadow had tried being the most unpleasant company possible, he hadn't really gotten him to leave. This had resulted in Shadow giving up on being a jerk and instead taking up drinking vodka—because apparently being in Sonic's presence for a long time couldn't be handled without alcohol according to Shadow—which, hey, it stung, but Sonic still considered it a victory as the alcohol had loosened up Shadow enough for him to stop sulking and be somehow friendly.

Well,  _Shadow's_ version of 'friendly'—which mainly consisted of an occasional dry humor and drastic decline in amount of violent threats—but that still counted as a success in Sonic's book.

He had even managed to make Shadow _smile_ back then, something that he— _anyone_ —rarely managed to achieve, and which he, at the time, hoped meant that Shadow was finally warming up to him. 

Shadow wasn't a person who was easy to make friends with; the only one, who so far managed to get the post were Rouge and Omega. He himself had considered Shadow a friend since the time they defeated Biolizard together but he knew Shadow wasn't someone who'd consider someone friend just because of a single instance of working together; Shadow had a completely different set of criteria, (which Sonic still wasn't sure what they exactly were, but he was starting to suspect one of them was 'being a gun enthusiast'—Rouge, apparently, had a surprisingly big collection of guns herself and Omega was, well,  _self-explanatory_ ), so whether Shadow actually considered him a friend after so many years was up for a debate.

After Rouge's party, their interaction seemed to have been a bit less 'heated', sure, there was a verbal fight, here and there—but it wouldn't be them unless they argued once in a while—so Sonic supposed he  _could_ say they _had_ finally moved from rivalry to friendship—a fragile one, but one, nonetheless.

_But you obviously don't interest him as a friend,_ his inner voice interrupted, once again breaking him from his thoughts, _unless he's up to being friends with benefits, of course._

_We don't know that,_ Sonic argued—Chaos, now he was even arguing with himself, this day was really taking its toll on him— _It can be the serum's doing._

Yeah, _that_ was also something new in their 'relationship'—it was kinda weird knowing Shadow desired him to some degree (to how big was questionable considering the serum interference) and he honestly had no idea what to think of it; after all, Shadow's _interest_ might turn out to be _not_ genuine but just some of Shadow's fleeting thought blown out of proportion by the serum. Even though Eggman had claimed that it was supposed to be a serum that showed a person's 'deepest desire', who knew whether it actually did that; Eggman usually didn't test his inventions before putting them straight into action.

Until the incident, Shadow had  _never_ shown being interested in him in any way—be it sexual or romantic—so Sonic was honestly more inclined to believe that whatever kind of feelings Shadow was experiencing now were brought on by the serum and not genuine.

But then again...Shadow  _wasn't_ someone who'd boast his affection for a person to the world—even the agent's friendship with Rouge consisted mostly of just bickering with each other...

It _was_ possible that the slight shift of Shadow's attitude towards him and the prospect of them being friends was Shadow testing waters, trying to assess whether he could mend their relationship which he had kept tearing holes into before,  and see if he could even _hope_ for more...

...and could he? Sonic wondered that himself.

He wouldn't lie, Shadow  _had_ been treating him rather poorly for the bigger part of time they had known one another, and, yes, sometimes the agent's words really  _hurt_ , but Sonic had never let it get to him too much, which he supposed was good as otherwise he most likely wouldn't be able to, down the road, figure out that it wasn't actually anything personal but just Shadow being extremely distrustful of people treating him nice in general—like Knuckles had been for some time after being tricked by Eggman.

Unfortunately, Shadow's trust issues obviously run much  _much_ deeper as even years of working together hadn't made the agent completely drop his protective walls.

That could also be why Shadow hadn't confessed before—opening oneself to another required immense strength and _trust_ —of which the latter Shadow simply  _didn't_ have.

The realization made something twist painfully in Sonic's chest. What if Shadow's current interest was truly  _genuine_ ? And him pushing Shadow away now, would make the agent—once he was fully coherent again—completely close himself off again and maybe decided not to associate with him at—?

_Enough!_

Sonic shook his head to clear it of these thoughts, deciding it was the time to stop over-thinking all of this; he honestly _couldn't_ know what the truth was unless he asked Shadow directly—when he was normal again, that is.

The best course of action now was just to remain on neutral ground and wait until Tails figured out the cure. Only after that he'd ask Shadow about the truth. And only after that should he  _try_ to solve it if Shadow's affection actually turned out to be genuine.

Noticing from the corner of his eye that Shadow was slowing down, Sonic slowed his pace too, just now remembering they were supposed to be racing—though judging by the snail pace in the last few yards Shadow didn't seem to be taking it that seriously either, honestly.

They skidded to stop right before his and Tails' frugal house, all surprisingly calm and quiet considering Tails had obviously been still awake not so long ago.

_The lights are out,_ Sonic mused as he opened the door and stepped inside, turning the hallway light on before heading straight for the door that connected the main house to Tails' workshop. The light shining from behind him illuminated the workshop just enough for him to see a small form wrapped up in a blanket lying on the workshop bed seemingly asleep.

However, the way Tails' right ear was raised ever so slightly and the anxious twisting of the young inventor's twin tails told him that was in fact  _not_ true.

_You need to pretend a bit harder, Tails,_ Sonic chuckled voicelessly, shaking his head at the others attempt at fooling him. Though the hero still choose not to say anything  and instead just close the door again, letting Tails believe for now that he had managed to trick him—he was gonna leave the scolding for morning.

Hearing a rustling from close-by, Sonic peeked into the living room. Shadow was unfolding his blanket, the agent obviously preparing himself for another night at the couch.

Sonic rested his hand against the door-frame, chewing his lip, unsure what to say; many questions burned on his tongue, but at the same time this didn't feel like a good place or time to ask them.

"Shadow?" he called softly, the agent giving a short 'hmm' sound and glancing at him over his shoulder.

"...You did great today, Shad," Sonic settled for saying in the end, rubbing the back of his neck somehow awkwardly as he tried to collect his _very_ scattered thoughts to say something substantial. "...Though don't run away like that without telling me, alright? I was worried about you."

The scowl fell from Shadow's face, a genuine look of surprise replacing it before somewhat a guilty look took its place instead.

Interpreting it as Shadow feeling guilty about worrying him, Sonic quickly added, "Don't stress about it. Next time you feel like having some time for yourself just pat my shoulder and show where you're going, 'kay?"

Shadow looked a bit surprised at being forgiven so easily, but he nodded nonetheless.

"Great!" Sonic grinned, stretching his back and yawning a little. "I guess it's time to hit the hay. Goodnight, Shad! See you in the morning."

Shadow made a gesture that Sonic interpreted as 'Same to you,' and then Sonic climbed up the stairs and, after a quick shower, into his bed, soon falling into a well-deserved sleep.

O-o-O-o-O

A syringe was laid before Dr. Eggman, the device no longer holding any of its former contents.

"Has your mission been successful?" Dr. Eggman questioned, turning to look at his metallic servant. "Do they suspect anything?"

"Neither Sonic nor Shadow noticed my presence," Metal Sonic stated matter-of-factly. "Neither had Shadow seemed aware of me injecting him with the SWD-2."

A malicious smirk spread across Dr. Eggman's face as he leaned back in his seat, resting his elbows on the armrests as he interlocked his fingers together before him. "Marvelous."

This time the serum wouldn't fail him; he had paid extra attention to the dosage of the serum to ensure it would be perfect for Shadow's biology. However, he had also added a little touch to ensure the upgraded serum wouldn't go into effect immediately unlike its earlier version; in its pure form, the upgraded serum was harmless, only once it would reach Shadow's liver it would start to break down into its effective version, which meant that the new serum would take 2-3 days before going into effect and hitting Shadow like a lighting from a clear sky—enough time for Sonic to be lured into a false sense of safety so he wouldn't expect an attack from the ebony agent.

Now all they had to do was wait. Only _wait_.

He chuckled in a malevolent glee. The plan was _perfect._

There was _nothing_ that could ruin it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-09]
> 
> AN: So, thanks to people stealing of this story, I took my first serious venture on Wattpad and I can say a few things about my experience.
> 
> 1) The search engine is broken. Just broken.
> 
> 2) The whole site is incredibly non-intuitive.
> 
> 3) Thieves aren't even trying these days. TWO people posted 'Deepest Desire' on Wattpad. TWO. (Though considering that they both choose the same cover picture (which I assume is also stolen) the two also might be the same person...)
> 
> 4) Wattpad is a dark DARK place. (Or at least the Sonadow section of it.)
> 
> 5) Why the heck do I have to submit real-life info for my fanfiction to be removed? You do realize that there's reason why we fan-fiction authors never spread around our real-life info, right, Wattpad?
> 
> 6) In the Wattpad comment section of Deepest Desire there are people who are far more thirstier for Shadow to finally bang Sonic than Shadow himself is.
> 
> 7) The reading format is just...ugh. I understand that the site is optimized for mobile phones but the designers could have at least TRIED to do an alternative for wide-screen reading...
> 
> Well, that's about it for now. I'm gonna study their Terms of Service (and all the other stuff) more in depth to see if I can find a loophole where I wouldn't have to submit my real-life info, because, otherwise, well...


	14. Small Gestures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to HardSonadowFanGirl (from over at FF.net) for betaing this chapter.

"Hey, Tails."

A loud thud followed the call just a moment later—Sonic presumed the sound was Tails bumping his head on the underside of his workbench. And, truly Sonic's guess was correct; the young inventor rose to his full height just a moment later, rubbing a spot on his head with one hand while the other held a wrench that was most likely the reason for Tails being under the table in the first place.

"M-Morning, Sonic."

"Morning, Tails," Sonic chirped as he placed a bowl of breakfast cereal onto the workbench, pushing it towards Tails. "I've brought you breakfast."

"T-thanks," Tails stammered a little bit again, laying the wrench onto the table so he'd have a free hand to pull the bowl closer. Once it was safely in his hands, Tails finally met Sonic's gaze with a small smile on the fox's face but his eyes wary, the young kid obviously realizing why his big brother was here, in his workshop, so  _early_  in the morning— _before_  Tails would have the chance to leave the house under the excuse of going shopping for things and thus ultimately avoiding the confrontation. "You're up early today."

"You can do more in a day if you get up early...and go to bed late," Sonic commented, taking a spoonful of his own cereal. "Don't you agree?"

"Yeah, but sleep is also important," Tails replied, obviously trying to avoid being given lecture over staying up late by telling him what he knew he'd tell him. "What about you? Aren't you tired?—I mean, you couldn't have gotten much sleep yesterday with the two tournaments and all. Has anything interesting happened at them?" Tails inquired, a bit rambling at this point as he tried diverge the conservation elsewhere.

Sonic was well aware of what was the other trying to do—distract him from scolding him for not keeping the lights-out.  _Well, I suppose I could let this one pass..._ Sonic mused, figuring he would sweep the matter under the rug this once; Tails obviously knew he had done wrong. "Well, I met Jet and the others, I lost a bet over a pizza and got hit on by some guys called the Witchcarters."

Tails immediately piped up at the name, "Witchcarters?"

"Yeah." Sonic nodded, raising a curious brow. "You know them?"

"Actually, yes. I do," Tails murmured, his gaze falling to the small bowl in his hands, his eyes getting a bit faraway look as if he were remembering something.

"Truly?" Sonic was surprised. "From where?"

"Um..." Tails once again met his gaze, suddenly looking uncomfortable—almost as if he had realized he had just let slip something he shouldn't have; the young inventor even looked away and started to nervously stir his cereal with his spoon.

"Well, back when we were still little kids, I once went on adventure without you..." Tails admitted as he placed his bowl onto the table, keeping his gaze downcast and focused at the bowl. "I stumbled upon this one island that was controlled by some crazy old lady called 'Witchcart' that wanted to turn everybody on that island into crystals. I knew that if you were there, you'd try to stop her before she could harm anybody, but because you weren't there, I figured I needed to stop her myself..."

Sonic put his bowl down as well so he could cross his arms over his chest. There was a serious expression on his face now. "What did you  _do_ , Tails?"

"...Not much actually." With lips pulling into a thin line and gaze still averted, Tails played with one of his namesakes. "I fought her and her henchmen, the 'Witchcarters'. I defeated them and liberated the island. Once making sure everyone was alright, I went back home."

Sonic frowned.  _You know, that almost sounds like that one time—_ Green eyes widened, peach arms falling open to instead be raised in the 'Stop right there!' gesture. "Wait, wait, wait—has that by any chance happened that one time when I couldn't find you for a whole three days and then you returned all dirty and scratched up?"

Tails gave a small nod.

"Why haven't your ever told me about that?" Sonic's lips pulled into an unhappy frown, just as peach arms crossed themselves on his chest again. "Do you realize how dangerous that was? Fighting bad guys alone? You could have gotten seriously injured! You should have told me you were going somewhere! I was terribly worried about you!"

"You've also used to fight Dr. Eggman alone when you were younger."

"Yeah, but I was  _eleven_ when I started, you were  _five_ , Tails. There's a significant age difference there."

"I was six."

Sonic shook his head. "Still too young, buddy," he finished, picking up his bowl again.

But instead of reaching for his own meal, Tails only looked down onto the ground, shoulders slumping.

Sonic sighed at the sight, his expression softening; he hadn't meant to upset Tails. "Just...just don't go on your own again, alright? It's dangerous."

"You are doing that too," Tails pointed out, blue eyes meeting greens once more.

Seeing that one as a good signal, Sonic grinned, emphasizing his words with a jab of his spoon. "I have years of experience, remember?"

"Yeah...you do," Tails confirmed as he picked up his bowl, just stirring the milk for a moment, silence stretching between them as Tails looked into his bowl somehow wistfully.

Wanting to break the odd silence—and remove that wretched look on his bro's face—Sonic cleared his throat and asked, "How's the antidote coming along?"

Tails immediately piped up at the question, the usual excited spark that showed up any time he could 'talk science' back in his eyes, the sad fox that was there just a second ago nowhere to be seen.

"I've managed to separate the serum and even started analyzing it," Tails announced excitedly as he put down a bowl and went to fetch his laptop. He placed it on the workbench, twisting it around to show his brother bunch of diagrams and other data Sonic didn't quite understand but assumed were some form of analysis of the unknown chemical. Tails turned the laptop back around and immediately began to type something into it, his hands rapidly pressing the keys on the keyboard. "Once we know what compounds the serum exactly consists of, it should be a piece of cake to come up with antidote!"

"How long do you think that'll take?"

Tails' brows furrowed at the question, his hands stopping mid-motion. "I'm not quite sure but I asked some other scientists and they promised to help me with it so it surely won't take long! I'm confident Shadow will be alright by next Tuesday!"

Sonic smiled softly. Leave it to his bro to do something quicker than any other scientist. "I'm sure Shadow will be happy to hear that."

And, as if on cue, Shadow stepped into the workshop at the very moment.

Sonic grinned.  _Speak of the devil..._  "Morning, Shad."

"Good morning, Shadow!"

Shadow gave a small nod of head to both of them, acknowledging their greeting in the only way he could at the moment. He joined Sonic by Tails' workbench, crimson eyes briefly glancing to their breakfast before focusing on Sonic, a brow raised in a wordless question as he made a vague shape with his hands and then gestured to the window, where the sun was already bathing the forest in the warm early morning light.

It took Sonic a moment and a couple of glances between the window and Shadow to understand what he was being asked. "...Yeah, we'll be emerald-hunting today as well." Sonic nodded, figuring that was the agent was most likely inquiring about. "Just give me a minute, I'll finish this and then we can go," he added, promptly digging into his meal.

Though he did stop his munching for a moment to ask, "Hey, Tails, have you fixed the Emerald radar yet?"

"Luckily for you, I've fixed it this morning," Tails replied with a grin as he went to fetch the aforementioned device, picking it up from one of the metal shelves by the wall. Though there was a noticeable frown on the young inventor's face when he turned back around.

"Though I think it'll be better if Shadow is the one to hold onto it." Tails handed the currently having-a-questioning-look-on-his-face agent the radar, promptly explaining to Shadow, "Last time Sonic had it, he dropped it into a river."

"It was an accident! I swear!"

"Doesn't change my mind about Shadow being the one to hold onto it," Tails shot back as he pressed a button to activate the radar, giving Shadow a quick overview of how the device worked—while pointedly ignoring Sonic and how he muttered it wasn't his fault that somebody had decided to fill the riverside with too many rocks that were easy to trip over—after all, Tails couldn't do much about Sonic being heedless but he could at least prevent his inventions from being _destroyed_  by placing it into the right hands.

O-o-O-o-O

Sonic weaved his way through the bushes and trees, the radar in his hands beeping occasionally, the intervals between the beeps getting longer or shorter depending whether he happened to move closer or further from the Chaos Emerald.

The hero frowned as he once again jumped over the little creek that ran through this part of the forest, walking along it while keeping his eyes trained on his surroundings but still not seeing even a glimpse of the emerald.

Sonic let out a huff of frustration. The radar was built for searching on big-scale so it was great at identifying the general area where the gem happened to be hidden but precisely locating the thing was another matter completely—and the radar kind of totally  _sucked_ at it.

Man, Tails really needed to upgrade this thing.

Sonic sighed, wondering whether he should just give up on the radar and wait for Shadow to show up; they had separated to cover more ground. Considering how much time Sonic had already spent wandering around this part of the forest and unsuccessfully trying to locate the gem, Shadow's own inborn ability to sense chaos energy should lead the agent here pretty soon.

Letting out another sigh, Sonic once more started looking around, this time deciding to trust his senses only; he himself could feel there was a Chaos Emerald nearby but his inner radar was about as precise as the one he was holding—probably even worse.

_I really need to practice more,_ he mused, sighing as he tried—and failed—to even pinpoint in which direction he should go. His chaos energy-sensing abilities weren't in any way at par to Shadow's own—honestly, comparing their level of skill made as much sense as comparing a newborn to a surgeon in terms of who could handle a knife better.

While the agent was an expert, he was a complete amateur—in all things that involved chaos energy in some way. So far, anytime he had to do something with chaos energy, he'd just go with his gut feeling and improvise. (To be honest, he was still impressed he had actually managed to chaos control back in the day when Egghead shot him into space in that pod, considering he hadn't really had any idea what he was actually doing at the time—and, to be honest, he still  _didn't_ for the most part.)

Once, he had even asked Knuckles to teach him how to manipulate and sense chaos energy but the echidna sucked at teaching so much that when he'd left the Angel Island he was even more confused about the whole thing than when he had arrived.

He _had_ thought about asking Shadow to teach him a couple of times but, considering what their relations used to be like, he had always dismissed the idea as impossible, believing Shadow would not be willing to help him. Though considering recent developments he supposed Shadow might not be as opposed to the whole idea as much as he'd believed the agent would be—

Suddenly, green eyes noticed the spark of purple in a tree crown.

_Is it—?_  Swiftly, as so the emerald wouldn't have the chance to suddenly disappear, Sonic made his way over to the tree, quickly locating the specific branch on which the emerald was and jumping onto it to get it.

(What he, however, didn't count on, was that the thick branch actually might not be able to hold his weight.)

Feeling the branch suddenly give out under him, Sonic let out a surprised yelp, barely managing to curl his hand around the purple gem before he suddenly became airborne without any chance to stop his fall—and thus he ended up right in the shallow creek below, water splashing all around as he landed.

Not one to enjoy an unexpected bath—or splashing in water in general—Sonic quickly rolled out of the creek onto the dry grass beside it and began to sit up, hissing through gritted teeth as he straightened his aching back.

Man, the stones in the creek were  _sharp_.

Stretching his back a bit more, he let out another heavy exhale; he still could feel the strain of yesterday fighting and now it was coupled even with the pain of the ungraceful landing. He really hoped he wouldn't have to do any kind of spin-dashing today.

_Well, we already have the emerald so I guess we could call some time off for the rest of a day..._ Sonic grinned as he twirled the purple gem in his right hand, feeling proud of himself at being able to find it very much on his own—even without the radar. Which now he realized, he actually no longer had in his other hand; he must have dropped it when falling.

Sonic gave his surroundings a quick scan with his eyes, his gaze quickly falling on the item, the corners of his mouth quirking up when he saw it was still in one piece. However, his smile froze when he saw  _where_ it was in fact lying.

He chewed the inside of his cheek.  _Shoot_. Tails was gonna be mad at him for getting the radar wet.

_Again._

Slowly, the cobalt hero made his way over to the submerged radar, hesitantly taking it out of the water and then shaking the device a bit to shake out the excess water. The device seemed to be off, but if it was because Tails had built in some automatic timed shut-down function or if it was because he had actually broken it Sonic didn't know.

"Man, Tails won't be happy when he sees this."  _Especially,_  when he'd insisted Shadow would be the one to hold onto the device.

Sonic shook the device a few more times to ensure all the possible water was out before walking a few paces and placing the device on a nearby rock to let it dry on the sun. He sat beside it, removing both his soaked shoes and socks, as well as wet gloves and scarf to lay them onto the stone too as, man, he honestly didn't want to spend the next who-knew-how-many hours having to wear wet clothing.

However, as he was laying out the items he couldn't help but glance at his still bruised hands. They had gotten darker and were now sporting deep purple color that contrasted darkly with his otherwise peach skin; most likely because of him using his hands quiet a lot in yesterday's fight.

_Well, good thing Amy's not here to see; she'd go all mother-hen mode on me..._ he mused as he finished spreading all the items out, before getting up and making a couple of steps away. Once sure he was far enough that he wouldn't accidentally splash his things and get them even more wet, he began to shake himself off of the excess water, wanting to be dry as quickly as possible.

Just when he was finished, the sound of bushes rustling sounded from nearby, catching Sonic's attention.

It was not much of a surprise to see Shadow come through said bush just a moment later; Sonic had been expecting him to show up for a long time now. The agent was turning his head as he observed the clearing, pausing noticeably at the stones where the Emerald and Sonic's clothing laid, most likely confused to as why Sonic had put them there.

Said hero just grinned. "Heya, Shad," he called to bring the agent's attention to him as Shadow in fact had his back turned to him. Shadow turned to him a just a moment later, an eye-ridge raising in a silent question at his current state of undress.

"I've gotten an involuntary bath when getting the emerald," Sonic explained, one peach hand gesturing to the broken branch that was now limply hanging from the tree, just waiting for gravity to drag it down onto the ground.

Crimson eyes briefly flicked to the mentioned place before focusing back on Sonic again.

"Though if it we could get the other Chaos Emeralds this easily, I surely wouldn't complain. Heh," Sonic added with a grin before he headed back to the drying stone, from the corner of his eyes seeing Shadow approach the place too.

Green gaze once again fell onto the purple Chaos Emerald and an idea popped up in Sonic's head. "Hey, maybe you could teleport us back to my house? I could dry up my things quicker there!" Sonic suggested excitedly as he took the purple gem and offered it to Shadow.

However, the agent didn't make any move to grab it, only staring at the gem in Sonic's hand—which Sonic, of course, immediately assumed meant one thing. "Well, if you don't feel like you can handle it, we can just wait and—"

However, before Sonic could even finish, Shadow was already shaking his head in the 'that won't be necessary manner' and taking the Chaos Emerald from Sonic's waiting hand, the gem immediately lighting up with a soft shine the moment it was in Shadow's own hand.

A gloved hand softly gripped Sonic's own and Sonic was about to tell the other to wait and let him pack his things, but before he could even get a word past his lips, there was suddenly this odd itchy, prickly sensation where Shadow's hand touched his and when Sonic turned to look what Shadow was doing, there seemed to be an odd golden haze surrounding their hands.

Confused as he had no idea what it was that Shadow was doing right now, Sonic only watched the light-show, waiting for Shadow to finish whatever it was he was doing and then explain himself.

Not long after, the haze disappeared and Shadow retracted his hand, leaving Sonic to stare in with wide eyes at his own hand—purely peach now, not even a faint glimpse of purple bruise discoloring any longer.

Sonic brought his hands together to compare them—one healthily peach, one still very bruised.

For a moment, Sonic tongue quite literally forget how to form words, the hero only emptily opening and closing his mouth. "Did you...Did you just heal me with  _chaos energy_?" Surprised, the hero looked up from his hands, receiving a small nod from Shadow just a moment later. Sonic's gaze dropped back to his appendages, still in awe at his hand being healed so quickly. "Whoa, cool. I didn't even know that was possible," Sonic said, still looking at his fully healthy hand in unhidden fascination.

Why had no one told him chaos energy could do  _this_?!

Slowly, Shadow reached even for his other hand, gently grasping it to heal it as well. And this time Sonic was prepared for the prickly sensation when it came and believe him it was honestly like watching magic happen as Shadow only needed to swipe his thumb over the injury to erase it as easily as marker off a board—as if it was never there in the first place.

Man, Shadow really needed to teach him this trick. Do you know how many  _months_ of painful injuries he could save himself from in the future?

The agent released his hand and Sonic gave Shadow a big smile. "Thanks a lot," he said, honestly appreciative. Not that those bruises had bothered him in any way, but it was still a nice gesture from the agent. And a nice gesture from  _Shadow_? He could count on one hand how many he had received from the agent—those were extremely rare; they had to be treated  _appropriately_.

However, instead of Shadow somehow acknowledging his thanks, the agent only stared at him with an odd look before switching the emerald to his other hand to bring the now empty one up and lay it onto Sonic's neck.

Sonic felt his breath hitch slightly at the unexpected contact, the hero not sure what to expect of the other considering the last two days. But the agent made no move to pull him closer or move himself closer. Instead where Shadow touched his neck there was this same prickly sensation—

_Oh, the hickey, right._  Shadow was obviously taking care of that. Of course, he'd do that when he'd healed his other bruises already.

...right?

Sonic's lips pressed into a thin line as he mulled over the thought. While his bruised hands had been an honest accident, the hickey was something Shadow had  _purposefully_ made. At first, Sonic had believed Shadow had done that just to piss off Amy so the agent could have a laugh at his misery, but he'd always had a feeling that was not the only reason for creating it.

Shadow actually removing it on his own without being asked to, what...exactly did that mean?

He knew  _why_  people gave other people hickeys and he wouldn't put it past Shadow (in his current state) to do it for the same reason—so why would Shadow remove it willingly?

_First him distancing himself and now this..._ Time-wise it was like almost two full days since the last time Shadow had actually tried anything on him.  _Two days_. Instead of Shadow attempting to get close and intimate with him as they all expected him—as he  _should_  be doing according to all previous evidence—Shadow was instead distancing himself more from Sonic, even going as far as erasing the mark he had left on him.

Sonic frowned. Just what on Mobius was going on here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-09]
> 
> AN: Hello, everyone! It's been a long time, hasn't it? Apologies for not updating earlier, but, you know, university...it's time consuming. Hopefully, I'll be able to update more frequently once the summer break rolls around. (Though let's all hope it's not gonna take that long for another chapter to appear...XD)
> 
> On another note, for those of you who enjoy a bit of humor: on April Fools, I'm gonna be posting a short one-shot so watch out for it!


	15. To Mend What Is Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, let me say I deeply appreciate the support you all give me. Secondly, I'm very sorry for taking three months to update. I'll try to do better next time.

_I need to get to the bottom of this..._ Sonic decided just as Shadow started to draw his hand away. However, before it could fall to the agent's side, Sonic's hand gently grasped the other's forearm, the action making red eyes briefly glance at where his peach-furred hand gripped the dark limb before moving to his face, the question in them obvious.

"Shadow, I..." Sonic started, but stopped as fast, realizing he wasn't sure how to even formulate his question. _Man, I should have thought what I was going to say..._  "Just...is everything, alright? With you, I mean."

Dark brows furrowed in confusion over red eyes, Shadow obviously unsure what he meant by that.

"Well, you seemed a little... _distant_  yesterday—and today too," Sonic explained, absently rubbing his now-healed neck. "I just...I just want to know if there's something wrong and if I can help anyhow. I know you can't talk but I'll do my best to decipher all... _that._ " Sonic laughed a bit to lighten up the atmosphere, doing motions with his hands that he was sure only faintly—if at all—resembled a sign language. "So is there anything you'd like to tell me? I'm all ears—or, well,  _eyes_ , this time, I guess, heh."

For a long while, Shadow only stared at him, the red eyes thoughtful and filled with emotions Sonic couldn't quite identify. However, Shadow didn't raise his hands to speak and eventually the agent just shook his head in denial.

Peach lips pressed into a thin line at the other's response; Sonic knew for sure that wasn't truth.

And he let it be known. "Don't lie to me, Shadow. Something is bothering you. I can _see_  that," he emphasized, not willing to sweep the matter under the rug easily; he _cannot_  help Shadow if the agent doesn't tell him what's wrong.

Shadow regarded him with the same pensive look but neither this time did Sonic get his answer.

A frown marred Sonic's lips, a sigh leaving them; he had honestly hoped that the serum would make Shadow a bit less reluctant about sharing his issues but obviously in that department even the serum held no power.

Which meant that the only way he could possibly get his answer was  _continue_ his blind guessing and hope he'd somehow figure out what the problem actually is. Great.

And even thought Sonic honestly didn't really feel like doing another round of  _that_ , he was going to because he knew the longer you ignore the problem, the worse it'll just get and he honestly rather not see what the  _worse_ looks like in this case, considering it's  _Shadow_  we're talking about.

But he needed to lay at least some foundation for his guessing, how it all started, when it all started—some  _clues_  to have at least a faint idea—

. _..that time I scolded him?_ Sonic wondered, the thought coming to him suddenly. It was after that Shadow's change in attitude happened, wasn't it? It was when Shadow started pulling this distant move. Before they had that (one-sided) conversation _,_ Shadow had been  _very_  eager to pounce at him at any moment that presented itself to him but after that there was absolutely _nothing_. No touching, no kissing, no anything. Shadow had even willingly remained at the house even though before he had both figuratively and  _literally_  clung to his side like a tick.

_What exactly have I said to him back then?_  Sonic racked his brain for the memories of two days ago.  _I talked about personal space...and journalists and...that was all, wasn't it?_

A scowl found its way to peach lips once more as—why would Shadow react like this to what he said back then? It didn't make sense. Before _that_ conversation he had told Shadow multiple times to back off, heck, he had told him he'd throw him out of the house if the agent tried anything when Amy was around and yet the agent had still  _gone_  and  _tried_...

Why not this time too then?

_Maybe it's because of the way I said that?_  Sonic wondered.  _...Maybe I was too harsh with him?_

Sonic didn't feel like he'd been severely harsh to Shadow—only as much as the situation called for—but Tails had said the serum might mess with Shadow's emotions, so it was possible than even though Shadow would normally be able to shake something like this off, him being harsh had actually somehow hurt the agent—and Shadow being Shadow just didn't let this hurt show and instead choose to express it by avoiding him...

Or it could be because that Shadow misinterpreted him? He'd said he'd wanted personal space but maybe Shadow had interpreted his words as him not wanting the agent around at  _all_ and thought he only tolerated him for the sake of searching for the Chaos Emeralds?

_Well, I did pay more attention to Jet than him on the tournament..._ That was  _true_ but when the Rogues were gone somewhere, he and Shadow would joke around and be on generally friendly terms, so Shadow surely didn't think _that_...

Sonic sighed. Oh, how simpler his life would be if he could read minds...

But he couldn't and Shadow obviously didn't plan to share his thoughts nor feelings on the matter so the only thing Sonic could do at the moment was try to reassure the agent about the state of things...

Therefore, Sonic cleared his throat, successfully drawing the other's attention with the action, red eyes turning to him with curiosity. "Well, I don't really know what exactly it is that's eating you, Shadow, but for now, I just want to say; I'm sorry if I was too harsh with you—and if I somehow made you think I don't want you around, then I'm really  _really_  sorry for that too. It's just—I've never been put into...  _a position_  like this, you know," Sonic said, making unsure gestures with his hands as he tried to convey the emotions he was feeling. "...The whole situation still feels kind of surreal to me." A fawn hand rubbed the back of blue neck as the hero added with a chuckle, "Heh, you know, it's actually not so often an attractive guy flings himself at me—no matter how much journalists might try to convince you otherwise."

The agent's brows rose in a great surprise at his words. Which, in turn, surprised Sonic because why would Shadow—

_...Wait, did I just call hi_ _m attractive?_ _Chaos,_ _ **no,**_  Sonic realized with a bit of mortification what he'd just let slip, cursing himself for trying to joke around as always to lighten up the mood.

He cleared his throat somehow awkwardly. "Ergh, forget the last part, alright? I might have hit my head when falling—" The surprise on Shadow's gave away to the faintest trace of a smile, the agent clearly amused by him trying to backtrack. Sonic chose to ignore it to focus on what was important. "—I just wanted to say that I'm not really sure how to approach the situation, so I'm sorry if I come off as too harsh sometimes." Sonic knew he was repeating himself now but he  _really_ wanted to make sure his point would get across to Shadow. "...So is everything good? Between us?"

This time the answer didn't take long. Only a short pause before Shadow gave a small nod.

"Good to know." Sonic gave the other a big smile, feeling some of the tension leave him now that the air was clear between them and when he looked at Shadow he too looked a bit more relaxed now...

_I guess_ _ **that**_ _truly was what has been bothering him..._ Sonic mused as he went to collect his stuff into his arms. He experimentally tried to switch on the radar but without much luck; it hummed as if starting up but the screen never lighted up.

Sonic's lips pulled into a thing line. Yup, he was definitely getting yelled on when they came back...

O-o-O-o-O

They chaos-controlled back into existence in Tails' workshop and Sonic immediately had a mini heart-attack as well as regrets about not clarifying he'd wanted Shadow to teleport them to the  _front_ of the house. That is until he realized that Tails actually _wasn't_  in the room and from the sound of or—well, the _lack_ of it—nowhere in the house either.

"Tails?" the hero called just to make sure and when he got no response, blue shoulders sank in relief; Sonic didn't think he'd survive another of Tails' lectures about not breaking his inventions.

Green eyes swept over the workshop, searching for a clue where Tails might have gone. The place looked the same as when they left just an hour ago, the only difference being that Tails' laptop as well as some of the chemical vials were gone and there was a piece of paper laid on Tails' main workbench; when Sonic picked said paper up the hero could see it was, in fact, a note from his brother, telling them they shouldn't expect Tails to be back sooner than at noon.

When he turned to Shadow, the agent was looking at him with questioning gaze and making some hand gesture, red eyes briefly darting to the note. Understanding the question, Sonic explained, "Tails is out. Earlier he said he had asked a couple of people to help him with making an antidote for you, so I guess he might have went to deliver samples of the serum."

Shadow gave an acknowledging nod and Sonic turned back to the workbench, grabbing a nearby pen as he turned the note around, writing a big 'Sorry' on the blank side before laying the broken radar next to it.

_Well, I guess that means no more emerald-hunting for today..._  Sonic mused. He personally didn't have a clue where the other Chaos Emeralds could possibly be and he doubted they'd just stumble upon them when the gems could literally be anywhere in the world. Plus they found three in span of two days, so maybe they could take a small break...

"Hey, Shad, how about we take time off for the rest of the day?" Sonic suggested as he turned back around. "I think we both deserve a break after yesterday and today—plus I also don't want to be here when Tails finds out I broke this—so how about we get lunch in the city? My treat."

Shadow looked contemplative for a moment but the agent did give him even if somehow hesitant a nod of agreement eventually.

"Great! Just give me five minutes; I'll change into dry stuff and then we can go."

With a quick "Be right back!" Sonic left the workshop, making a brief detour to the downstairs bathroom to throw his wet clothing into the dryer before running upstairs to his own room. In seconds, he slipped on fresh gloves and socks before rummaging his room for his only other remaining spare pair of friction-resistant shoes—he really ought to tell Tails to make him another—which he knew had to be stashed around there somewhere. Luckily his room was rather small, so they didn't take long to locate. He was about to grab another scarf too until he realized he actually didn't have any need for it anymore.

He rubbed his neck absently at the thought, looking into his small wall-mirror to confirm it was truly gone. It felt...weird not having to wear the neckerchief anymore. He felt paranoid that the hickey would just appear out of nowhere again and cause havoc...somehow. Probably mostly among journalists.

With one last look to the mirror to check the mark hadn't mysteriously re-appeared, Sonic put on his new footwear before heading back downstairs. Blue ears straightened in surprise when he heard a familiar female voice coming from nearby once he was at the bottom of the stairs. It seemed to be coming from the living room.

"Rouge?" Sonic questioned the moment he stepped into the room, seeing it was indeed the bat he'd thought it to be, Shadow at her side. "What are you doing here?"

"I've brought Shadow a few things; clothes and some other necessities," Rouge explained, pointing her thumb at the unfamiliar dark bag that was currently occupying the left side of the couch. "I mean, we can't let him run around in the same stuff all week long, can we?" She patted her colleague's shoulder, earning herself a small eye-roll from the agent; after all, GUN surely had sent the two on missions during which the two would spent  _weeks_  in one clothes so it wasn't like this was a big of a deal to him; getting yourself luxuries like fresh clothes was something you needed to forget when chasing bad guys or doing recon.

But they weren't on a mission and had the opportunity, so why not use it, right?

Rouge sighed. "Well, I'd love to chat with you, boys, but I'm here just for a quick visit; I need to get back to work. Though could either of you give me a ride to the city by any chance? I should have been there like..." Rouge tapped her communicator. "...ten minutes ago?  _Oops_."

Rouge didn't sound even the  _least_  sorry about not being on time; there was even a smile on her face.

Mirroring the bat's expression, Sonic laid a hand onto Shadow's shoulder. "You know, we're actually headed there too so  _hop on_ ," he said, gesturing with his free hand to Shadow like a salesman urging a potential customer to test their product. Shadow gave another eye-roll at his antics but the agent didn't try to shake off his hand nor Rouge's when she placed it onto the other dark shoulder.

There were no other words spoken and only the faint purple glow of the Chaos Emerald in Shadow's quills was their warning before they warped across time and space and into the Central Park, scaring a couple of pedestrians in the process.

"Ugh, I don't understand how you two don't get sick from this," Rouge huffed, taking deeper breaths and noticeably tightening her grip on Shadow's shoulder. "It's nauseating."

Shrugging his shoulders, Sonic let his own hand fall back to his side as he stepped forward, looking curiously around the park—was he hearing music?—before back at her. "You get used to it over time."

"Doesn't seem so far," Rouge replied as she let her hand somehow reluctantly slip from the dark shoulder to curl the arm around her stomach instead. "Then again I don't travel like that as much as you do. Flying is more of my thing." Arm drooping back to her side, Rouge flapped her wings a couple of times but before she could take off, she clearly remembered something, whipping around. "Oh, before I forget—give me your hand, Sonic."

Raising a curious brow, Sonic did as she'd asked, the hero not sure what to expect. With a grin, Rouge walked over to him and raised her hand. Sparkles began to dance around her hand, materializing into rings that dropped into Sonic's waiting hand and re-absorbing with a familiar chime.

"Here you go, hon."

"Thanks, I haven't expected you to give them back this soon." Sonic squeezed his fist to subdue the now huge amounts of humming ring energy under his skin; had Rouge given him some extra rings?

"I always pay my debts and keep my promises contrary to what many people may think," Rouge said, stretching herself, wings fluttering slightly behind her. "I also gave you a few extra rings as an interest, so spend them on something fun, alright?" She winked at them before flapping her wings and rising into the air. "See you later, boys!"

"See ya, Rouge!" Sonic waved at the bat until she disappeared behind a building. Then he before turned around back to Shadow. "So, where do you wanna eat, Shad? Do you have any favorite restaurants?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Shadow shrugged his shoulders, obviously not having any preferences about where they should eat. To be honest, Sonic didn't either; as long as the restaurant served good food he didn't really care so he hoped Shadow would suggest something.

Sonic scratched his head as he tried to remember what food establishments he visited in this area of city. "Well, I remember this one great Chun-nanese restaurant like five minutes away—" Sonic turned to point in the direction of the restaurant, eyes going wide as his gaze landed on the structure in the distance; he'd thought he had heard music! "The summer festival!"

The blue blur whirled around, green eyes wide and excited just like the smile on Sonic's face. "Shadow, we have to go! Me and Tails have been here last year. It was a ton of fun! There are rides, great food and games! Though most fun was definitely the pie—!" Sonic clasped his mouth shut, realizing he'd rather not spoil that  _one_ —Shadow probably wouldn't want to go if he knew what was the main event of the whole festival. "You know what? Let's leave that as a surprise."

Shadow gave him a suspicious look at his sudden secretiveness but didn't push for more information, he just gave a sigh and bobbed his head towards the venue, the action telling Sonic the other accepted the change of plans.

Happy the other was offering no resistance to his plan, Sonic giddily jogged towards the venue, Shadow falling into step beside him.

The music was gradually getting louder as they continued to walk, the main banner of the event coming into view soon after, a symbolic gate into the festivities, hung between two giant oak trees. There were couple of people running around, handing out pamphlets and offering advice as well as giving suggestions what to try to anyone that asked for them.

When the hedgehog duo reached the 'gate', they were immediately noticed, a purple bandicoot with red ribbon in her hair walking over to them to hand them the promotional materials. "Welcome to the Summer Festival!" the girl said, handing them the pamphlet, along with one red and one green ribbon. "Please, take these and enjoy your stay here!"

"We will," Sonic said as he took all three items, nodding his head and smiling as they passed the girl and let her focus her attention on the other that were coming in. Taking one of the ribbons, Sonic handed Shadow the other. The agent gave him a questioning gaze, holding the green ribbon between his fingers and clearly having no idea why they'd been given these in the first place.

"Tie it around your wrist," Sonic advised the agent as he finished fastening his own ribbon. "You'll need it for the  _surprise_ ," the hero explained, a playful grin spreading across the peach lips.

Shadow eyed both him and the ribbon with searching, scrutinizing look but eventually he did tie it the ribbon around his wrist.

"Great!" Sonic grinned, taking hold of the other's ribbon-adorned wrist to pull the agent into the sea of people and stalls. "Now let's have some fun!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-09]
> 
> Alright, now lets gets serious for a moment. I need your help, folks—you fellow authors. What do you do when you feel stuck with a story? Like I have this story planned out and everything but when I sit down to write it I just find myself running to other projects or just staring at the page and writing at a pace like 100 words per hour (because of endless editing and re-writing which) I think we all can agree is not something you'd call productive. Any tips what to do? I'm seriously in a need of advice.


	16. Fun Before Business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you might have already noticed that this story has underwent some heavy editing. To give you a basic synopsis of what changes have been made so you don't have to read through it all; Plot-wise nothing has changed. No events were added or removed. Structure-wise some chapters have been merged and some scenes have been removed/abbreviated to achieve better pacing and flow. Former chapters 1-8 (now 1-6) and former 15-20 (now 10-15) are very much unchanged except for some minor changes in wording. Former chapters 9-14 (now 7-9) have underwent the biggest changes, have been cut to pieces, roasted over open fire to remove excess fat, burned with a flame-thrower for extra crispiness and finally arranged into nice more plot-driven treats that I hope you all will enjoy more than their original version.
> 
> But now on with the newest chapter!

The following hours passed by in a flash. There were no idle moments as they went from one attraction to another, every once in a while stopping by a food stand to try another of the delicious food or to try their hand at the games that were all around.

Though because neither of them felt like carrying the prizes around (and Sonic was fairly sure Tails would scold him for littering the house with useless stuff  _again_ ) any time they managed to win they always gifted the prizes to some of the kids that weren't as fortunate in their attempts—which then would end up in a big smile and occasionally also spontaneous hugging; Sonic still couldn't help but grin anytime he recalled how hilariously surprised and out of his element Shadow had looked when one of the kids hadn't let herself be frightened by the agent's scary appearance and eagerly hugged him in gratitude.

Frankly, it was long since Sonic had this much fun and he'd bet all the rings he had left that the same applied to Shadow; it had taken the agent a while but, eventually, Shadow had started to enjoy himself. As time went on, the agent even kept on gradually loosening up to the point that at one occasion, he had even laughed—not snorted, not chuckled, but  _openly_ laughed. Though Shadow allowed it to be only short-lived, which Sonic personally found quite disappointing as the agent had a really _really_  nice laugh.

Sonic might have amped up the amount of joke-cracking after that just to draw it out of Shadow again but even though he hadn't managed the feat, the hero was still content with his accomplishments as it kept the not-quite-a-smile-but-pretty-darn-close on Shadow's face thorough the day.

It remained even now as they silently lounged in the shade of one of the oak trees that were in every corner of the park; all the running around today and the weariness left from yesterday had taken its toll on the both of them so they had decided to just sit and relax until the special event rolled around. They were outside the festival bounds but still close enough to faintly hear what was going on in there and see the people scurrying about.

A small smile tugged at Sonic's mouth as he watched the endless parade, relaxing his back against the tree trunk behind him. He felt content just sitting here, with a stomach full of great food and mind of fresh fun memories that they had lived through just this morning. When he sneaked a look from the corner of his eyes at his ebony companion, he could see that Shadow too seemed content just resting here beside him.

It was honestly the first time than Sonic found himself  _happy_  about this whole serum ordeal; without it, he would have never had a chance to do something like this with Shadow as the agent would have most likely declined his invitation if he were to ask him or possibly not even be  _there_  to be asked but instead who-knows-where on a mission.

Peach lips pressed into a contemplative line. Maybe this whole predicament could actually be good for them? It could be, right? Shadow was a bit more approachable and social thanks to the serum now which meant that maybe he could convince the agent into doing more fun stuff together. Use it to get to know each other better and strengthen their fragile friendship. Show Shadow that life is more enjoyable when you have somebody to share its moments with. That seemed like a great plan.

Sonic grinned.

_And I know just how to start it._

O-o-O-o-O

When they stepped at the venue of the special event, Sonic couldn't help but whistle.

"Man, it's packed this year," he commented aloud as he let his eyes sweep over the crowd of the excited festival-goers. It seemed that word had gotten around since last year; it was at least thrice as many since the last year—and most of them even seemed properly out-fitted this time around, either outright wearing swimsuits or going completely bare (in case of some Mobians) to have easier time getting themselves clean once the battle is over. "This is gonna be a mess."

But the  _good_ kind of mess. The  _fun_ kind. The kind that Sonic was already greatly looking forward to lending a hand in creating.

With a mischievous grin already pulling at the corners of his mouth, Sonic glanced at his ebony companion, who, judging by the confused expression on Shadow's face, clearly had absolutely no idea why everyone was dressed like they were going to a beach. But Sonic didn't think telling him would do any good. Only spoil the surprise. After all, Shadow would quickly figure that out on his own once the thing started. Though he supposed he could give Shadow some heads-up.

He gave the other a small nudge, drawing the crimson gaze towards himself with the action. "You should stretch yourself a bit," Sonic said, heeding his own advice and starting to do exactly that to release at least some of unruly energy that was slowly seeping into his limbs in anticipation of the face-off that was to come. "Especially, arms. We're gonna be using them a lot today."

The other gave him a searching stare and Sonic could practically see the gears turning in Shadow's head as the agent tried to figure just what on Mobius was going to take place in just a couple of minutes.

Sonic grinned. "Oh, yeah, and get ready to get  _messy_. At least one kid will get behind your back no matter how on guard you are." Sonic whipped around to emphasize his point, jabbing a finger towards the familiar quintet of kids that had managed to sneak up on him and Tails the year before. "Don't think I don't see you there, you five! You won't get me this year!"

"Just watch us!" the leader of the group shouted back, the others cheering in unison. "This year you have no chance, Sonic!"

"That's my line, buddy!" Sonic shot back with a wide grin on his lips. Though it was replaced by a somehow stern expression once he turned back to Shadow. "Don't you  _dare_  team up with them."

The agent raised a brow at him before giving an assessing glance to the kids before looking back at him. The glint in Shadow's eyes and the smirk on the agent's face told Sonic well enough the other had decided to do exactly that.

The hero sighed theatrically. "Why am I not surprised?" he asked, shaking his head lightly and chuckling. Of course, Shadow would join the kids in this case.

Sonic's ears flicked as they took notice of the familiar quick, up-beat music beginning to play. The mischievous smile returned to Sonic's lips at hearing this and the hero began to stretch himself once more, recognizing it for the sign the battle would be starting soon. However, he had the time to do only a few basic arm stretches before a couple of staff-members arrived to the spot and began to instruct everyone present to join the others with their respective color—as assigned by their ribbons.

Then they were given the usual welcomes, told what was and wasn't allowed during the battle and then finally ushered towards the big open field where hundreds upon hundreds pieces of 'ammo' were already prepared for them, scattered all across the area. In that very moment, Sonic dared to sneak a glance at Shadow at the other side of the field, an amused snicker leaving him.

The look on the agent's face was  _priceless_.

Then again, who would expect a pie battle of all things?

O-o-O-o-O

_Left! Right! Duck—_ Elegantly rolling out of the incoming pies' way, Sonic firmly planted his heel onto the ground, twisting around on it and launching his own pie in the direction of his 'attackers' in one smooth motion.  _—and shoot!_

The pie hit its target. Shadow didn't look pleased. Nor did his new little buddies who had got splashed by the pie fragments. To rub salt into the wound, Sonic childishly poked his tongue out.

It earned him exactly seven and one half of a pie being thrown at his face.

Sonic dodged them all to the misfortune of the group, the adrenaline making it easy for him; so far he hadn't been hit by a single pie and he was determined to keep this streak until the end; only a few more seconds remained of him needing to dodge his personal assault squad—and try to land some more pies for the red team along the way.

Though both of there were getting more and more difficult with the excessive amount of whipped cream making the grass slippery and a severe scarcity of usable pies.

However, from the looks of it, there didn't seem to be many points to be earned anymore. Most people already seemed to be covered from head to toe in the culinary goodness. Not that anyone seemed to mind. Most came here for exactly that, after all.

And even though Sonic had initially planned to do the same, doing the exact opposite seemed as more exciting option at the moment.

_Alright, Sonic,_ _focus. You can do this_ _ **,**_  the hero urged himself as he continued to dodge the pies being thrown at him. The ones being thrown by the kids were easy to dodge, but Shadow had an eye and arm quicker than all the kids combined...  _Come on! 5...4...3...2...1..._

Seeing the agent once more outstretching his arm, Sonic quickly side-stepped but suddenly felt himself slipping on the grass.  _Oh, shoot—!_

But before the other had the chance to finally land a hit, a horn sounded across the field, announcing the end of the battle, everybody automatically freezing in position. Sonic internally cheered at succeeding, while the kids groaned in displeasure at not managing to fulfill their promise of defeating him.

"We'll get you next year, Sonic!" they promised before shuffling away to get cleaned up in the outdoor showers that were prepared exactly for this occasion.

Sonic allowed himself a chuckle as he waved the kids goodbye before picking himself up from the ground and approaching Shadow, who was still holding onto the pie, the agent now colored more white than black because of having been caught of guard by Sonic while the agent had been focusing on someone else, currently paying for his inattention by looking like a dessert himself.

"White color suits you, Shad. Maybe you should try dyeing your fur," Sonic remarked with a grin.

Shadow didn't look impressed.

Instead the agent raised the hand with the pie. Sonic's eyes narrowed, the hero doing a small step back, having an idea what the other planned with it. "Don't you  _dare_."

Tan lips pulled into a smirk.

Shadow  _freaking_  dared.

O-o-O-o-O

Sonic splashed his face with the cold water, swiping over his face with his hands three times to ensure even all the remains of the whipped cream were gone.

"All clean?" he questioned as he turned around, letting his still much messy companion asses his look. Shadow gave an inclination of his head, approving the adequacy of his quick clean-up. Sonic grinned. "Great! Then knock yourself out." He motioned with his hand as he stepped down from the small platform of the beach-styled shower, letting the other take his place under the cold water. Shadow didn't hesitate as his clean-up would definitely take more time and effort than his quick splash.

Weaving his way through the crowd, Sonic positioned himself next to the vendor booths so he wouldn't obstruct the path of those who were still waiting for their turn at the showers, close enough for Shadow to easily find him once he was done.

He leaned against the sturdy stall wall, for a moment only basking in the sunlight and letting it dry his damp fur. However, his moment of peace was short-lived, blue ears perking up when they heard a ruckus from nearby, they along with the rest of their owner's body turning to find out where ti was coming from.

"What do you mean  _you lost_? Argh! I should have known you'd mess it up, you useless piece of—!"

The voice was loud so it didn't take much to find source of the noise, the green eyes easily zeroing on the duo that was standing in the gap between two vendor booths just a few steps away, seeing it was Scratch and— _what a surprise_ — "Breezie," he said aloud before he could stop himself, immediately drawing said hedgehogette's attention his way, her amber eyes over-shadowed by surprise staring at him from her anger-stricken face. "...Um, long time no see?"

That seemed to snap Breezie from her momentarily stupor as the female immediately straightened herself, anger as well as other emotions disappearing from her features as she fixed and smoothed her red suit. She shot Scratch a look, shooing him away with a flick of her wrist before turning back to him.

"Hello, Sonic," she said with a practiced ease, her usual demeanor and business smile easily slipping back into place. "How nice of you to stop by to participate in my event and boost my views."

"Your event?" Sonic voiced, surprised. He had noticed couple of cameramen running around but he had thought they were journalists. Then again it would make sense she had her people there, BreezieMedia was a big corporation after all. "You're behind the pie battle?"

"Oh, well, yes, it's a yearly promotion for the BreezieTV—but that's not important." She waved her hand dismissively as it truly wasn't a big deal. "Instead," she started, looking at him and fixing him in place with an intense stare and a smile that he was sure was supposed to be friendly but to him looked oddly predatory, "let's talk about _you—_ " Breezie stepped closer to him, curling her arm around his shoulders as an old friend would do, pulling him further behind the stalls for privacy. "—and your new  _partnership_ , shall we?" She gave a meaningful glance to Shadow before the amber eyes moved back to him. "I couldn't help but notice how close the two of you are lately. First at the Extreme gear tournament and now this..."

With a frown, Sonic shook of the female's arm, knowing well what the other was implying. "We're just friends."

"So friend with benefits, huh?" She crossed her arms over her chest, acting nonchalant to his denial of her friendly gesture; they both knew it really wasn't that. "Well, you were always full of sur—"

" _Just_  friends.  _Platonic_  friends," Sonic cut in, very much hissing now. "Stop trying to twist it into some kind of scandal."

"It's either gonna be me or someone else, dear." Breezie gave him a patronizing smile, but she had a point; many journalists surely were going to start to spun wild theories sooner or later while he and Shadow were so often seen together. "After today, it'll surely be a  _lot_  of people. And I, unlike everyone else, am willing to offer you a bit of compensation if you grant me _one_ exclusive shot."

"...What kind of compensation?" the hero asked cautiously, intrigued. "And what kind of a shot?"

"I know you're after the Chaos Emeralds. I have one and if you agree then it'll be yours." Breezie smiled a smile that was just too sweet and practiced to look organic. "And the shot—a kiss if you will."

Sonic felt as if he were struck.

"...A kiss," he repeated, disbelieving. She  _couldn't_ be serious.

"Of course, we'll pick an angle that doesn't show it outright, because you know how people are—Is it or isn't it a kiss?—scandals with a hint of mystery are better than regular ones; it sparks a debate and gets people buying more newspapers."

Sonic felt his insides twist wildly just at the idea. "I'm not doing that."

"Why not?" Breezie pushed, clearly trying to work her businesswoman charm to talk him into what was a definitely _very_ bad idea. "I'll have my story and you two will have your Emerald. I think it's beneficial for both sides."

Unfortunately for her, Sonic was not dumb. "You won't have a horde of journalists on your tail."

"With your speed, you never have someone on your tail whom you don't want there," Breezie remarked with a smirk and wink.

Sonic frowned.

Breezie sighed. "Alright, I see you're a businessman too. So how about this—I'll give you an Emerald and tell you who has  _another_." Breezie outstretched her arm, offering him her hand. "So, do we have a deal?"

_'So, there's no need to give them an actual fuel,'_  Sonic's own words from two days ago rung through his mind. This was a bad idea. Yes, keeping the Chaos Emeralds from Eggman as far as possible should be their priority but that would get considerably harder if there were people constantly at his tail. Plus Breezie herself surely had many safety measures in place to ensure no one would get to it and considering her current standing and her relations with Eggman she was unlikely to trade it with the doctor.

So Sonic shook his head and with finality in his voice uttered, "No." Breezie didn't let herself seem disappointed. Taking it as his cue to leave, Sonic added, "Goodbye, Breezie," giving an acknowledging nod to the female before turning around to go reunite with Shadow who had clearly been about to approach them.

"Old acquaintance," he offered as explanation to sate Shadow's curiosity the moment he reached the other. When the agent's gaze seemed to turn even more questioning, he expanded it to, "Another of Eggman's robots that has gone rogue on him. She doesn't pose any threat though."

_That's where you're wrong, darling,_ Breezie remarked internally as she watched the two leave. Sonic's loss that he didn't cash in while he still could.

Once the two disappeared behind the stalls, a green shrew with camera on his neck appeared from another and approached her. "When are we doing it?"

"He declined," she replied with a bit of a frown. "Show me what you have now." Breezie beckoned the other to hand her the photos and once he did so, she skimmed through them, giving them a scrutinizing look.

"Hmm, not exactly the best quality but they'll do." She offered the photos back to her informant. "Get it to the office. Tell them I still want it in the evening news and that I want Hershey to be covering this."

A smirk spread across the shrew's mouth as he took back the photos of the two hedgehogs. "Will do, madam."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Last edited: 2018-07-20]


End file.
